Blake Shelton Pulls a Plot Twist on ‘The Voice’ Knockout Rounds

The competition is fiercely heating up between each of the contestants of The Voice, which made Blake Shelton pull an unexpected move during the knockout rounds on Monday night (4/2).

In a rather peculiar match-up, Shelton pitted Austin Giorgio up against Spensha Baker to determine who moved on to the big live shows. First up was Giorgio, who strapped on a crooner mentality when he hit the stage to sing Nat King Cole’s “Almost Like Being in Love.” Taking a page out of Michael Buble’s playbook, Giorgio suited up and charmed the audience over with his old-fashioned approach to performing like that in the rat pack days.

Giorgio held his own during the rendition, but his vocal riffs got lost within the beaming personality that the singer put forth. Although Kelly Clarkson and Adam Levine both looked to be subtly cheering Giorgio on, he set the bar at a pretty good spot for Baker to try to one-up him.

When it was Baker’s turn to stand at the mic, she stripped her performance down to showcase her vocals on Chris Stapleton’s “Broken Halos.” Adding a soulful yet acoustic flair to the track, Baker really honed in on her riffs and tone to set herself apart from Giorgio’s show-stopping charisma. Her emotional connection to her performance brought her that much closer to the coaches, and gave her something to strive toward during her time on stage.

Shelton was left between a rock and a hard place trying to decide which member should move on. Noting that he could never lose a highlight like Baker, he locked her in for his line-up and convinced fans that Giorgio’s road was coming to an end.

Surprisingly enough, Shelton made the move to not lose the spark of talent in Giorgio either by pulling his only steal for the season on the crooner. In the end, no one lost for Shelton’s team and his decision left the roster intact as it was last week.

New episodes of The Voice air on Monday and Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. EST on NBC.