‘The Voice’ Season 26 Episode 13 recap: Reba wins a steal in ‘The Knockouts Part 2’ after missing with first two attempts

Tonight on “The Voice,” the Knockouts continued with coaches Michael Buble, Snoop Dogg, Reba McEntire and Gwen Stefani organizing their teams of nine artists into three groups for the three-way knockouts. Joining the teams for this round as mega mentors are former coach Jennifer Hudson assisting Michael and Reba and music legend Sting assisting Gwen and Snoop. In this round of the competition, each of the three artists will perform a song of their choosing in a head-to-head-to-head matchup and then their coach will decide on one winner to advance. For the artists not chosen as the winner of their knockout, their coach has one save available to keep an eliminated artist and the other coaches have one steal to bring an eliminated artist over to their team.

In “The Knockouts Premiere” on Nov. 11, Snoop used his save on Christina Eagle, Gwen stole Jake Tankersley from Team Snoop, and Michael stole Jaukeem Fortson from Team Reba while also using his save on Sloane Simon. Notably, Reba hit her steal button twice in the episode, first for Christine who chose to stick with Snoop and second for Jake who joined Team Gwen instead.

Team Bublé showed up in the latest episode with performances from Shye, Edward Preble, and J.Paul, who Michael told Jennifer are all very different artists with individual styles and strengths. Edward sang “Send in the Clowns” by Frank Sinatra with Michael advising him during rehearsals to “sing hard on those vowels” and to use his vibrato “sparingly.” Jennifer remarked that he has a “special” and “timeless” voice that only comes along “once in a lifetime.” J.Paul chose to sing “Kiss from a Rose” by Seal and needed Jennifer to help him connect to the emotion of the song without letting them take over. She said that he should use the emotion to “put it in the song,” as she was taught herself to do when working on “Dreamgirls.” Shye worked on “The One That Got Away” by Katy Perry because she reflects on her own experience singing the song to her mom while she was sick. Michael and Jennifer both told Shye that because of her age, it’s impressive how well she connects to the emotion of a song and “totally okay” that she “might not know who” she is yet.

After the three artists delivered their knockout performances of the songs, Michael declared Shye to be the winner because he thinks she might be one of his favorite voices, “not just of the season,” but “of all time.” He added that she has the kind of voice “you want to hear on the radio.” While J.Paul was eliminated, before Edward left the stage he told Michael that he thinks he made “a great choice” and that he can “see her going very far in the competition.” When Reba hit her steal button to keep Edward from elimination, he asked her if she was serious because he was “not expecting” that. “You’re so sweet,” he added, hugging her. Reba explained to the camera that she’s loved him “from the beginning” and thinks he’s a “character” with a “great sense of humor.” She thinks it will be fun working with Edward in The Playoffs and perhaps beyond. The uncontested steal attempt meant that Reba finally won a new artist to her team and still has her save in her own pocket to use on her third and final three-way knockout to air next week.

The other knockouts shown in episode 13 were: Team Gwen’s Felsmere with “Son of a Preacher Man” vs. Gabrielle Zabosky with “Used to Be Young” vs. Kay Sibal with “One Last Time.” Gwen chose Gabrielle as her winner. Team Reba’s Katie O sang Reba’s own song “Turn on the Radio” and knocked out Frankie Torres and Tate Renner, neither of whom had their rehearsals or performances aired in the episode.

The updated teams:

TEAM SNOOP  – Aliyah Khaylyn, Austyns Stancil, ChrisDeo, Christina Eagle, Georgia Starnes, Mary McAvoy, Mikaela Ayira, Torre Blake

TEAM REBA – Adam Bohanan, Danny Joseph, Edward Preble, Katie O, Kendall Eugene, Lauren-Michael Sellers

TEAM GWEN – Gabrielle Zabosky, Jake Tankersley, Jan Dan, Jose Luis, Mor Ilderton, Sydney Sterlace

TEAM BUBLE – Cameron Wright, Jaukeem Fortson, Jeremy Beloate, Kiara Vega, Shye, Sloane Simon, Sofronio Vasquez

The four-time Emmy Award-winning musical competition series “The Voice” is in its 26th season featuring five stages of competition: Blind Auditions, Battle Rounds, Knockouts, Playoffs and Live Performance Shows. In the coaches’ chairs, Reba is the defending champion after winning season 25 with Asher HaVon, the show’s first openly LGBTQ champ. She is joined by Gwen, in her 8th season, and Snoop and Michael, both competing for the first time.