On the eve of Team Miley leader Miley Cyrus’ 24th birthday, The Voice narrowed its field to the top 10 on the Tuesday, November 22, results show. Two of the pop star’s remaining three team members duked it out for survival, but love-or-hate-her hippie-style singer Darby Walker was lost to elimination.
Coming back with an Instant Save was Aaron Gibson, this week’s second-to-last-place vote-getter, despite a strong performance of Nine Inch Nails’ “Hurt” — a fitting song for the understated (and hard luck) Gibson — on the November 21 episode.
The tearful Walker — who performed Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” on Monday — told Cyrus before exiting, “Thank you for allowing me to come on stage and sing about things that mean something to me. Oh, my goodness. Thank you for allowing me to be the free spirit that I am and allow me to express myself 10,000 percent, because people need to realize they can be who they are.”
Gibson shook up iTunes after his performance of “Hurt” on Monday, placing fourth in sales behind the show’s reliable front-runners, Wé McDonald, Sundance Head and Billy Gilman. Gibson’s rendition of the cult hit “Hurt” (Ken Jeong sang it on karaoke in The Hangover III) resonated with some audiences.
But voters didn’t coalesce behind Gibson for the second straight week, except in the Instant Save.
“I honestly cannot believe we’re having this conversation in this situation,” Cyrus told an equally disappointed Gibson, in disbelief of voting scores. “We [the judges] thought you had one of the best performances of the night last night. Even after you left, we all discussed it.”
Cyrus, who did a Team Miley group hug with Gibson and the departing Walker as credits rolled, joked that she thanked voters for picking both members of her team dead last.
“Thanks America, greatest birthday eve ever!” she said. “Putting my team in the bottom two. Wack.”
Notably, this week’s lowest iTunes sales-getter, Ali Caldwell, avoided placing in the bottom two. Caldwell, also on Team Miley, sang a rendition of Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” on Monday’s show that didn’t crack the iTunes 200. She will be back for the top 10, though.
Check out a selection of fan tweets below to see how viewers reacted to the results.
No @DarbyAnneWalker I did not want that to happen ?? @MileyCyrus #VoiceResults
— Leigha (@team_leigha) November 23, 2016
srsly no reason for me to watch the voice anymore.? @DarbyAnneWalker i’m going to miss watching this hippie gal #VoiceSaveDarby #darbywalker
— Cameron Denler (@DenlerCameron) November 23, 2016
The Voice vote @Aarongibson killed NIN song omg #aarongibson #saveaarongibson
— Stacy Zimmerman (@StacyZimmerman) November 22, 2016
Although America instantly saved #AaronGibson… I still think #DarbyWalker is the winner.. atleast in my eyes.
— badgal_toytoy (@ToyZ_1031) November 23, 2016
.@MileyCyrus #VoiceResults Can you have Aaron perform w/out a guitar? I do like him but the guitar is distracting to me. Does he play piano?
— Joanne Bennett (@joannebennett43) November 23, 2016
Tell Us: Were you surprised by who went home? What would you give Miley for her birthday?
The Voice airs next on NBC Monday, November 28, at 8 p.m. ET.