Spoiler alert! This story reveals a couple of the results from The Voice Season 28 Battles that aired Monday, October 20. You can stream episodes with a Peacock subscription if you’re not caught up.
The superstar coaches of The Voice Season 28 are nearing the end of the Battles with Knockouts on the horizon. After all of the fun that Niall Horan, Snoop Dogg, Reba McEntire and Michael Bublé had building their teams, they’ve reached the episodes on the 2025 TV schedule in which they have to start making cuts. The Battles are particularly brutal, and the former One Direction member explained exactly why this is his “least favorite” part.
Niall Horan had a pretty impossible decision to make when Aiden Ross and Ava Nat chose to go up against each other on Night 3 of the Battles. Just like I think the Season 28 twist of letting the artists pick their own battle partners resulted in the possible frontrunner going home last week, I was so afraid of losing either one of these singers. As good as their voices sounded individually, they blended even more beautifully together (to the degree where Reba McEntire suggested they become an official duo). Don’t believe me? Take a listen:
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Having to choose a winner was almost too much for Niall Horan to bear, and he took a moment to rant to host Carson Daly about what makes the Battle round particularly difficult, saying:
You know I don’t like this, Carson. This is probably my least favorite round of the show, because saying goodbye to people that you’ve effectively just met is not an easy task.
That actually makes a lot of sense, because while coaches like Adam Levine have said the Knockouts are worse, by that point the contestants have gotten a couple of different coaching sessions and likely have something substantial to take away from what essentially a music boot camp.
In the Battles, however, they’ve only gotten to work together one time before the coaches have to cut their teams in half.
Luckily for Niall Horan, he still had his Save, so despite picking Aiden Ross as the winner, he was able to retain Ava Nat.
Snoop Dogg wasn’t so lucky when Emmanuel Rey and Mindy Miller went up against each other. He delayed his decision as long as he could before chastising his fellow coaches and trying to get Carson Daly to do his dirty work for him. He said:
I hate this part of the show. Because y’all just sit back and look at me. My heart’s racing fast, my blood pressure’s up, my eyes are watering.
While Carson Daly contended that those symptoms might have been caused by something else — aka Snoop’s “greenroom” — it was clear the D-O-double G didn’t want to lose someone he already considered family. In the end, however, he chose Mindy Miller. Did he make the right choice?
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There is something that has always seemed cruel about forcing teammates to go up against each other in a “2 artists enter, 1 artist leaves” situation, especially so early in the competition, but that’s the game we play.
That game will continue next Monday, October 27, at 8 p.m. ET on NBC, and after a season that’s already brought us the Carson Callback and this pick-your-partner Battles twist, it looks like The Voice has another new rule up its sleeve for the Knockouts. Stay tuned!