‘The Voice’ Fans Suspect That the Show Is ‘Rigged’ after a Recent Controversial Elimination

Some fans of "The Voice" have reached the end of their line following this week's elimination round that left three of Blake Shelton's contestants still in the running and all of Kelly Clarkson's gone.

On Tuesday night, viewers saw eight singers vie to be in the top four for the finale round in next week's episode of the popular NBC show.

Co-judge John Legend's Maelyn Jarmon from Texas slid through successfully after singing "Stay" by Rihanna. Based on Apple Music streams of "Voice" contestants, Jarmon should be confident about her chances as she dominated the chart.

Next up was Dexter Roberts, who sang 3 Doors Down's "Here Without You." He joins teammate Gyth Rigdon, who sang "God Bless the U.S.A.," for the upcoming final round. Both are on Shelton's team.

Rigdon's performance also caused some backlash when judges Clarkson and Legend both said it wasn't his best display of vocals. Instead of accepting the critic, fans lashed out at the two judges, accusing them of insulting the highly patriotic song.

Moving along though, Kim Cherry from Shelton's team sang Janet Jackson's "Together Again," while Carter Lloyd Horne gave his version of Hozier's "Take Me to Church." Sadly, they were instantly eliminated when they got the least amount of votes.

This meant that Rod Stokes of Clarkson's team, Shawn Sounds of Legend's team, and Andrew Sevener of Shelton's team would have to count on America to get one of them through to the last round with an instant save.

Stokes sang Needtobreathe's "Brother," Sounds sang Bruno Mars' "That's What I Like," and Sevener went with Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Simple Man." After that, the nation voted via Twitter.

In what was a shock to most, Sevener got the last spot in the finals, meaning that Clarkson's and Levine's teams were completely off the board and there were only country singers remaining.

Viewers were flabbergasted for many reasons. They suggested that the show's manager create a spin-off of "The Voice" that would feature only country singers since the judges only seemed to want to hear that genre.

Twitter user Scandalmonium wrote:

"I'm done with the @thevoice this season. Do something with the voting rules. In the end the best singers didnt even make the finals. Give country and western a spinoff. This time around so disappointed in new format."

Others were appalled that Sevener had supposedly outsung Stokes and Sounds. They insisted that the voting was somehow rigged to favor Shelton's team.

Nicole said:

"Once again #teamblake gets the instant save even tho his singer wasn’t the top trending [thinking emoji]. Seriously think this is rigged somehow."

Many simply couldn't believe that Sounds was voted out, describing his performance as "amazing," with one person calling Blake's contestants "mediocre country singers."

Of course, Shelton was left with three contests in the final round, while Legend had just one. The four are set to battle it out next week, but a lot of angry fans said they simply won't be watching the episode or any future episodes of the show.

While Shelton received some backlash, people mostly criticized the show as a whole. Last week though, Shelton was forced to apologize when he posted a confusing response to a fan on Twitter.

Twitter user Jessica Isherwood commended Shelton's new song "God's Country!" but wondered why there was no American flag in the video. Cheryl Jackson retorted that "the whole world belongs to God. Not just America."

When Shelton attempted to defend himself as well, he accidentally misunderstood Jackson's sentiments saying:

"WOW!!! A stunning revelation... Do you realize that America is a part of the world..?!" he wrote. "And if this is God’s world then....? Bam!!! Congratulations!!! We’re back at square one guuuurl!!!"

Another fan came in and corrected him, to which Shelton retracted what he said and apologized. "Ohhhhh!!!!! Ha!!!! My bad!!!! I’m sorry Cheryl," he wrote. "Y’all see? This is why I suck at social media!!!"