The finale feels like graduation. When you look back, it offers a time of reflection. Last night we showed video of the four finalists' transformations and how far they've all come, and you look back and it's amazing, the journey that we've all had. Since the Super Bowl, this season has absolutely flown by. We had a lot of the eliminated artists in the audience last night, and you'll see some of them on the air tonight. It's been so wonderful to see how confident everyone is now. The four finalists are all there for a reason, and they're strong not only because they're four of the strongest voices in the competition, but they're the artists who have risen to the occasion. I think anybody could win this thing, I really do. There's not a runaway winner here. Tonight's going to be really, really interesting.

We got three performances from each artist last night: a solo performance, a duet with the coach, and a last-minute surprise for the coaches in the form of a tribute cover performance. The artists were really into it. They loved it. They wanted to do something to say thanks, so they were really excited by the idea. It was tricky to keep it from the coaches because they were on set all day yesterday — normally, they're not necessarily there all day, but because it's the finale, they were there early. We shoot in a soundstage, so we had to kill the monitor feed back where all the coaches trailers are so they couldn't see what anyone was rehearsing. That way the coaches would be surprised, and I think they were genuinely moved by their artists' sentiment. The cover songs provided for some really nice moments of closure, and that was the last time we're really going to hear the artists talk to their coaches in that capacity. The show's been really fast-paced, and we wanted to make sure that these final four artists had some time to address their coaches and thank them for everything they've done.

Jermaine, even in the first couple of weeks, sang like a backup singer. I think it was his style, when he did the Avril Lavigne song in the blind auditions. It was good, but it wasn't what you heard last night with R. Kelly. He's literally found his voice. He's found his frontman voice. Background singers often sing like background singers — they're trained to sing in a peripheral harmony, like a complementary singer, because that's what they do. They're trained not to overshadow the talent. Well, Jermaine has evolved now to the point where he is the talent. He needs his own backup singers now, and you saw that last night with "I Believe I Can Fly." If you look at the progression — and the finals is a great time to do that — you can see the growth. Win or lose, Jermaine's there, and I think Blake helped him get there. I think that "Soul Man" performance last night was a ton of fun, and I thought their rapport together was just outstanding. As I mentioned on the air, Jermaine was an unlikely finalist for Blake, but he believed in Jermaine, and Jermaine needed to be believed in, and that's all it took for him to stand at the front with some courage. Jermaine's in a great place as an artist, no matter what happens

The caveat for Juliet is that she was very sick last night. Behind the scenes, she didn't open her mouth yesterday at all during the dress rehearsal. She was just nodding. She walked through all of her performances, saving all of her energy. If you look at the tape from when we first met her, she's transformed completely. From "Roxanne," which is when she really got Cee Lo's attention, to Aerosmith's "Cryin'," when she almost got eliminated and her coach saved her, to James Brown. I mean, just look at her trajectory. She's hit all the right notes. She's finally probably gotten the direction from Cee Lo that she needs, which is what it's going to take for her to be a real artist. She said herself that she was re-energized by her own pursuit of music, by making it in the blind auditions, by Cee Lo turning around. Cee Lo injected a rebirth in Juliet, so now she believes in herself again. She's got so much star power, too, even when she's under the weather. When she's walking on the stage, it's hard to take your eyes off her because she's unpredictable. She's really come a long way.

Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

What great performances from Chris Mann. In the background during his tribute song to Christina, “The Voice Within,” there was an actual handwritten letter that Chris wrote Christina, which we blew up to make the backdrop of that song. I thought that was a cool addition. His solo songs, combined with his duet with Christina… overall, I thought he had a great night. It was a strong showing for Chris! People talk about him singing Josh Groban, but let me tell you: there was room for Christina and Britney, and if he wins The Voice, there's going to be room for Josh Groban and Chris Mann, too. He's phenomenal. He's got a sense of pride now, singing his style of music, and it's a very powerful style. It's a very international style. You may not hear him 90 times a day on the radio, but I think he'll be very successful.

Tony Lucca said a very telling thing last night when he said that Christina referring to him as "one dimensional" forever changed the course of his career, in a lot of ways. Here was somebody who, when we met him in the blind auditions, was established. When Christina came looking for Tony in the blind auditions and they reunited, it connotated that even though they weren't on the same team, that Tony would have an ally in Christina. And that has just not been the case, as we've all seen. So that's led Tony and Adam, who have this great connection, to skew their angle on the show, and that's been to be these wildcard performances. Some of them were sort of geared towards Christina, with "Baby, One More Time" and "How You Like Me Now?" and even last night with "99 Problems." (I know Adam said on air that it's a metaphor, and somebody has to ask Jay-Z what he intended when he wrote that song. Christina took slight offense to it, but that's for another day.) But Christina's comments and the way she’s treated Tony have been fuel for him. I don't think he ever expected that to happen, but that's been a good thing for Tony because it's brought the best out of him.

Early on, the Sprint Lounge was meant to be the epicenter of our social networking, to check in on the pulse of the show as it's happening live. Now it's the finals, and it doesn't really matter who's trending because we've gotten some great family moments; and you know me, I'm all about the family. We care a lot about our artists, we care a lot about their families, and it was awesome seeing, for example, Jermaine Paul's family early on yesterday. The way his mom and dad spoke about him was moving. All of the families had moments last night in the Sprint Lounge. As I reflect on the season yet again, these artists, the strength of their families, and their stories of perseverance are moving. We are only as strong as the company we're in, and what great company our four finalists are in this week with their families.

Looking at Chris Mann's mom and dad, with their sense of pride, and Juliet's boyfriend, seeing the look on his face… it's just really remarkable. These are the things that make the show more than a singing competition. People ask me all the time, what is it about The Voice? This is what it's about. It's the families and these moments of support that elevate this show from just being another singing competition to being moving television. When TV makes you feel good, then it's a great show.

Also, one last thing. Blogging has been a new territory for me, to wake up early the day after the live shows and try and offer some insight and put things in perspective, to give EW.com readers a look into this enormous television show. I've had a really great time doing it. As host and producer, trying to stay somewhat unbiased and a little bit Switzerland, I hope that it's been as much fun for you to read as it's been for me to write. I know the Web is a very busy place, but this has been a lot of fun for me, and I hope it's been a useful tool for Voice fans out there! Thank you all for reading the blog and for taking a few minutes each Tuesday to join me. See you all tonight!

Follow @carsonjdaly on Twitter!

(As told to Marc Snetiker)

It really feels like we've got an elite eight, and now we go down to the final four tonight. We saw a lot of emotions last night from everybody! Emotions on a lot of levels: everything from Erin Willett, who really broke down after her song, to Cee Lo, who was very emotional during Chris Mann's opera performance and certainly during Juliet Simms'. Everybody's realizing that there's only one more week left on season two of The Voice, and we have come so far. I think it's starting to dawn on a lot of people, and it's very, very emotional. This does not feel like a TV show to us; this feels like a family, and the family's been through a lot. A lot of good things, but there's a sense of the finality of it all, and I think people last night were really emotional because of it. By and large, 90% of last night was a shared experience where all the coaches really got to just enjoy these elite 8 and the battle lines were a little less drawn.

I think Tony Lucca's Britney Spears song last week worked well for him. It got him America's save, people responded to it, and it was a gutsy decision, and ever since Christina called him one-dimensional, making gutsy decisions has been the thing that's really worked well for Tony Lucca. After his performance last night of "How You Like Me Now?," a girl I work with this morning said that was the first time she saw Tony as a leading man. He was dashing, he was dancing, he had so much soul. He looked like an all around performer, and it paid off! It had a ton of energy, another excellent call by Coach Adam, and I think it's going to pay off for him. We'll see if he wins tonight! If he's in the finals for Team Adam, it'll be interesting to see what his final song is, because the last couple have been left of center.

The voting tonight is going to be a combination of what the coaches' scores were last night, equally combined with America's vote. So it depends on strategy. If Adam really wants to make sure one or the other gets through, he can tip that scale, and he has that right to do it. It's equally weighted with America, but if he gives Tony 100 points and Katrina Parker 0 points, even if America favored Katrina, it could still tip the scale. I think it's a close race, and I think they're very different. Next to Juliet Simms, Katrina has the most amount of mojo going. People are falling in love with her every time she hits the stage. I think she is definitely one of the most transformed contestants since day one. She's blossomed on air. I also loved her moment with her parents! All of the family storytelling last night was really special.

Erin never overtly talks about losing her father during the shooting of the show, but she really broke down at the end of her performance and never really said it, but alluded to it, that the lyrics to "Without You," were inspiration from and dedicated to her father. Blake got emotional and gave her that nod of approval. He lost his father right about the same time, so that's a bond that they have, and that all came to fruition last night. As sad as it is, it makes for a dynamic story and is certainly a reflection of something very real and genuine. If Jermaine Paul should go on and get America's vote and be the finalist for Team Blake, Erin Willett left it all out on the court last night.

Chris Mann, I think everybody unanimously agreed, came full circle. It was his opera voice that pushed multiple buttons for him. During the battle rounds, Christina did a little experimenting with him, having him sing Coldplay. But she ultimately brought him back singing "Ave Maria," putting him back in the genre, and it paid off huge. This guy could win The Voice and go open up the Met. I think it was really smart putting him back in his lane, if you will, of opera singing.

Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

Lindsey Pavao's got this thing with America. I loved her song selection, that Bon Iver song "Skinny Love." She continues to boldly put her Lindseyness on everything that she sings, which really seems to strike a chord with people. She's got star quality. When I'm watching her, she's almost like this alternative Katy Perry. She looks like a star. Lindsey and Chris are going to make for an interesting match up tonight as well.

Every sports team looks down their schedule for their rivalry game - for the Yankees, it's finding the Red Sox - so we look down the calendar to see when Jamar Rogers was going to have to go up against Juliet Simms, and one of them was going to have to go home. That night is tonight. We're going to have an answer tonight. We've had it earmarked for a while, and after last night's performances, it's completely up in the air.

Juliet's performance, next to Justin Bieber walking out on the stage, was the loudest the studio has ever been. When we were nearing the end of the show and time was of the essence, I physically couldn't move the show along. The producers in my ear didn't realize that the house was on their feet standing and would not let us move on, because they wanted Juliet to know just how much they loved her version of "It's A Man's, Man's, Man's World." It was one of the moments that you just can't control. It might have been the moment of the entire season.

I don't know what America's going to do, though! Jamar has always gotten a huge amount of votes, and he did that song very currently and, man, what a voice. That went over really well, too. It's going to be a tough one tonight, and it'll be interesting to see how Cee Lo plays it. Did he pick a favorite? Does he want to tip the scale? And what did America think last night? Did Juliet edge out Jamar? Did Jamar's fans come to life more? It's all going to be unveiled tonight.

The elite eight is an excellent, excellent place to be on The Voice, but the final four is another level. Tonight, we've got our final four from last year performing on the show. There's a status that comes with being in the final four that you never lose. You'll always be a final four member. These are the four artists whose careers, most likely, will flourish and could potentially blossom into huge superstars. As nice as it is to be in the elite eight, this next jump is the biggest. There's so much potential for diversity: you could have an opera singer, an alternative singer, a really strong powerhouse, and a rocker chick. I don't know how it's going to shake out.

But rounding up everything last night - the performances, the interactions, the family stories - this is why we love The Voice. This is why we like this show better than any other singing competition show, because those eight performances last night were solid performances. I walked off the set last night, grabbed my Blackberry and tweeted, all caps, "I LOVE THIS SHOW." I don't care about ratings, I don't care about networks, I don't care about anything other than how proud I was of everyone on the show. Everybody wants to have a sense of pride in what they do for a living--I think we all have that fantasy--and last night's show was a good example for all of the coaches, and certainly for me. That's something I was really proud of. That was a calling card show. It's not even a ratings thing. I'm the host of the Voice, and I'm proud to be it. That's what I felt last night.

Follow @carsonjdaly on Twitter!

(As told to Marc Snetiker)

The coaches really got it right this time. There was so much shock and awe last week — so much controversy over Jesse Campbell going home as well as RaeLynn and Jordis — that people may have been thinking, What's going on? But it felt like there weren't any surprises last night, which is a good thing for the show and has a stabling effect.

In regards to the beginning of the show, with Cee Lo and Christina and everyone laughing... all I can say is that it's live TV, and it's unexpected! The coaches all had the giggles, and I tried not to be sucked into that, but you have to just go with it, try to get beyond the moment, and wrangle those coaches in. We all can have a laugh for a second, but you can't live in that moment, and the difficult part is pulling those coaches out, especially when they're that giggly.

That aside, I'm proud to be captain of the ship, I really am. I'm so proud of the show, and last night reaffirmed how willingly I would take this show into a street fight with other singing competition shows. We’ve weathered some storms in the past, but I'm proud of our performances, of our level of talent, of our staging — it looked like awards-show caliber, and I am so impressed at what we do in two hours live. It's just remarkable.

The show settled in really nicely. It was bookended by Jamar Rogers and Juliet Simms, I think for a reason, because those were two standout performances. Behind the scenes, we were a little unsure of Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" for Jamar. We all look at Jamar as a real talent and a threat, but I think there was a little bit of a question mark to the song, on paper. And yet, when you saw him perform last night, he made it his own and told his story. He sang it like this is his life, and it is his time, and it became a great case of an excellent song choice by Cee Lo because it just worked. Jamar can sing the phonebook, it doesn't matter. He hasn't even shown us his best yet! Cee Lo sees him as a rock star, and he is, but if he's saving a power ballad for the end, he's going to blow people away.

I think you're seeing a little bit of a power shift — and it's not a knock — between Mathai and Katrina Parker. They're both good examples of the evolution of this show, and maybe it's like trending topics — they go up and they go down. Katrina, after doing that Christina Perri song, recaptured a lot of people's hearts, and like Adam said, she's a real force to be reckoned with now. I think it's going to be very interesting to see how it all goes down on Team Adam tonight. Before, if it was down to Tony Lucca, Katrina, and Mathai, I would have said for sure that Mathai was Adam's ace in the hole, or that Tony and Mathai were his two to take to the finals. And now, I don't know! If Tony and Adam's gamble paid off, and America thought that the Britney Spears moment was the moment and they vote to save Tony, then that means Katrina and Mathai are both going to sing for their lives tonight, and I just don't know who Adam is going to save. Last week, I would have bet my life it was Mathai. Tonight, I have no idea!

James Massone is a great kid. Cee Lo created this ladykiller thing for him, and he'll probably take that and work with it off the show. I think it was a smart invention by Cee Lo. James is probably the luckiest contestant to date for making it as far as he had. He doesn't possess the same vocal tools, let's say, that some of the other people who have made it this far have, but he's got swagger, and he does what he does really well. He's made a connection with the female audience in particular, and I think he should be proud. Obviously no one wants to go home, but I think he understood that it was his time, and he was grateful.

Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes" may have backfired on Tony Lucca last week, and I think he and Adam knew that he needed momentum this week. I think that they sat around during rehearsals all week and thought about what they could do to shock the system. With all that press about Christina's comments about Tony being one-dimensional, and of course all of us thinking it was going to be a Mouseketeer lovefest — "Baby One More Time" was a gutsy decision. Tony is strong and he made a statement, and I love that he used his own career as an opportunity to get back at Christina for those one-dimensional comments with this tongue-in-cheek performance of the most bubble gum pop song of all time. I think it was a ballsy, standout moment that paid off. If it had bombed or if people had booed it or if Christina wasn't into it, he might have made himself vulnerable to elimination, but the room loved it, the coaches loved it, and I thought he just killed it.

Cee Lo made a comment about how all we have are these Tinkerbell, tinny, auto-tuned female stars out there. There are few girls that sing from the gut, and he wants to nurture that and usher more of that into the music scene, and Cheesa's certainly somebody who could fill those shoes. Cheesa's got great vocal respect in the hallways of The Voice. From day one, Cheesa has probably had the strongest pure muscle ability in her voice. When we heard she was doing Whitney, your first thought is, oh boy, that's always a tall order. But you realize it's Cheesa, and she can probably do it. And she did it, and she does it well. I think most people embarrass themselves when they attempt to sing Whitney, but I think she should be proud.

Pip tried to prove a little too much a little too late. Good song choice, but playing the piano is always distracting. If you're not touring every single night and you’re not extremely comfortable playing piano and singing at the same time, it's a very difficult thing to do. I noticed he struggled with it a little bit. But it was a good song choice for him, and he did everything he could last night. He even lost the bowtie! Still, he's in a tough crowd. Just look at the team he's on. Given the strength of the performances before him, I think in that last minute you saw his life flash in front of his eyes. I will say, he was a lot of fun to have on the show, and he brought this great, youthful energy to it that we'll miss.

What can't you say about Juliet? Christina said it best: when she sings, she blacks out, and that's the best compliment you can get, because it just means you're so comfortable in your skin singing on a television show in front of 10+ million people, that you just own it and you kill it and you make it yours. When she's on stage, she's a force, but backstage, she's really humble and soft-spoken. She's been to this rodeo before. She's had deals come and go, she's seen the accolades, and she's not fazed by it. Juliet's just waiting for her time, for all the stars to line up, and for her career to really begin, because she's fallen victim to too many false starts.

I think it'll be interesting to take America's temperature again. After last week being as controversial and tumultuous as it was, tonight we'll see where the fever's really at on The Voice. We'll see if America picks Tony or Katrina or Mathai or Cheesa or Juliet or Jamar. People are going home, and it means that there are only two weeks left of The Voice! We're rounding third here, and everything's being left on the stage. You're seeing sing-for-your-life performances every time. The show already had strong performances, but all of these eliminations and coaches' saves are forcing people to dig deep. But overall, the winner is the viewer. Whether or not you agree with the coaches' choices, you're the winner because you're getting great music on television, whether you realize it or not.

The old ’50s throwback number was a lot of fun to do. It wasn't a direct tribute to Dick Clark, although obviously there was a lot of inspiration and a little bit of an homage there. But "Dancing in the Streets" was all Cee Lo's idea. There was a little bit of Dick Clark, there was a little bit of Bob Barker, a little Wink Martindale. When I was doing it, shooting it in black and white, obviously with the great Mr. Clark recently passing, there was a wink in my eye of gratitude to that legacy.

Follow @carsonjdaly on Twitter!

(As told to Marc Snetiker)

Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

Everybody is still abuzz about last night's instant elimination. It was the gasp heard 'round the world, and I was stunned myself! Of course, it was at the very end of the show, and in my ear I'm hearing, "You have 30 seconds left!" so in my mind, I have a very formatted job to do: stand with the four, eliminate one, send the three remaining artists off, bring the person getting eliminated to me for their final words, etc. But that decision threw me for such a loop. People were freaking out!

The last time I had this experience was when The Sopranos ended, when they're in the diner and then it just cuts to black. That's what it felt like. When Christina said the words "Jesse Campbell," my brain cut to black, and it was so quiet in the room. If you wonder how I work while in shock, that was it! I don't even remember the last 30 seconds of the show.

The one thing I do remember is that the whole room was just quiet for a minute. And then as soon as the shock wore off, everybody grouped up and started talking about it. There were mini discussions being had by every single person in that room. Once the emotional part went by, they were just trying to understand it. It instantly sparked dialogue, which is always a good thing. Whether or not Christina made the right move is up for discussion, and by the looks of everybody I've seen, people were shocked by it.

Here's the motivation behind the new rule: Typically, Monday nights are performance shows and Tuesday nights are elimination shows. Adam made a comment last Tuesday night, that it sort of sucks that we're seeing these incredibly awesome, emotional performances on Tuesday when elimination is on the line. The sing-for-your-life performances have been some of the best performances, and so it got us thinking that the Monday night show is too safe. The easiest way to look at it is that two people from each team are still going home — we just moved one of those eliminations from Tuesday to Monday.

Tonight, one person will be saved by America, and then Blake will save the other (and the same goes for Christina, of course). America saves two, the judges save two, and two go home. None of the math on the show has changed; we just noticed that when there was something at stake, we got the best performances from these people.

There were mixed reviews: Adam thought it was a great idea to have this instant elimination, but Blake didn't like it and he said it at the top of the show. And Blake went and played the safe route with his decision. He went with America. More people voted for the others last week than they did for Jordis, and Jordis sang for her life and he saved her. But he felt like he couldn't keep saving her. He had to let America's numbers from last week force his hand, so he decided based on who he thought America liked more. It was ironic that Jordis said in her interview piece that she's never been more confident. I thought her performance was great; I liked her singing a softer song. That surprised a lot of people, as did her elimination, but obviously it was much less surprising than Jesse.

You also have to remember that we're not like other shows. There's a relationship now between the coaches and the artists who they're trying to mentor. This isn't just a black and white issue of who can hold an F sharp longer than the next guy. There's a lot more at stake here, so don't underestimate the relationship between coach and artist.

There were comments that said that Jesse must have done something wrong, but Christina made a few remarks that alluded to some things that kind of say, what can she really do for a 42-year-old guy who's an incredible singer? She was looking for versatility and people who have room to grow, and maybe she just thought with Jesse that what we see is as good as he's going to get. She can't coach him anymore, so she's sending him off into the world.

Aside from the shocker, it was a solid show last night. It was great to have Maroon 5 there, Wiz Khalifa in the house, Blake singing, Christina doing her thing. I think the backstage buzz was that people really missed it. This is the first time in season 2 that the coaches have performed with their teams, and every time our coaches hit the stage, it's an instant reminder that we have four of the biggest names in music, and they're all awesome singers.

I loved the moment between Christina and Blake during Christina's performance, when she had the male dancers give him a little treat from the stage. Blake didn't know about it, but he was such a good sport and put the stripper's cowboy hat on and just had some fun with it. Everybody had a big smile on their face, and that's what I love. And then we had the Crenshaw Choir come out and sing; that whole thing was like a Grammy performance. Whenever the coaches perform, it brings a whole new energy to the show.

I loved RaeLynn right off the top of the show. I think she needed that moment last night, singing that Jason Aldean track; it was a strong performance at a really strong time. Miranda Lambert was there last night, and she told me a fun story backstage: Miranda wears a chain around her neck, a little sterling silver pistol for her side project, the Pistol Annies, and she told me that she and the two other girls in the Pistol Annies are the only three that have this chain, and they all wear it. And she gave one of those to RaeLynn as a small thank you for choosing to sing their song. I think that was a sweet thing, she actually gave her one. RaeLynn's got a lot of support in the country community already, and this just speaks to that. She has a huge, huge support system, especially in Nashville.

Lindsey Pavao has a tremendous following, too. She's got the highest social networking numbers, and the most iTunes sales from this season. What's interesting is that RaeLynn represents all those country fans, but I can't put my finger on what Lindsey represents. But it's something. There's this sort of ’90s resurgence lately, and Lindsey has a touch of that ’90s vibe, but she's also got a little teenage angst. It's fascinating to watch her deconstruct Katy Perry with a Skrillexian haircut. I saw her in rehearsal do "Part of Me," and I saw her do that song six times in a row while they were working out the blocking, and she sang it different all six times. She reminds me of Lady Gaga to some degree, to be honest. I don't know what it is, I really don't — but people react to her and like her and download her stuff!

I want to see Chris Mann sing Bocelli. I think he did a nice job with the chorus of "Viva La Vida." It's a big song by Coldplay, and he obviously can sing it, but he looked a little out of his element. I think Chris and Christina tested the water last night by having him do Coldplay, and I think that it came back unanimously, from the vibe and from the coaches, that that performance was odd at best, and as much as it seemed like Christina was putting him out of his comfort zone, it felt forced. If he has an opportunity to sing for his life, he might want to just give us that opera again and remind us why we loved him in the blind auditions.

Ashley is like the comeback kid. She was on the verge of going home and sang for her life, and since then she's really won the hearts of our coaches. I think they see so much potential; unlike Jesse Campbell, she's like the antithesis of that to these coaches. She's 17, she's got her whole life ahead of her, and she's got a great foundation. There's so much room for her to grow and I think that's such an attractive quality to Christina in particular. She continues to take steps forward and not backwards, and that's a good thing now that everything's on the line.

I think with the elimination of Jesse, it's safe to say that Jermaine Paul is the most confident man in this competition now. No one got a better night's sleep last night than Jermaine Paul. In his mind, nobody's more ready to make it than he is. He's very confident, but we'll see how that confidence plays out. Adam reminded him to be careful and not oversing it, and it'll be interesting to see how he takes that advice.

If the instant elimination got you going, then that's what it was designed to do. Not that the show needed a resuscitation, but we looked at it this way: this is the most exciting singing competition on TV, and if it needs that sense of urgency — if there needs to be some danger in place — and we're going to eliminate somebody Tuesday night, then why not do it at the end of Monday? It served that purpose. Seeing how everybody's reacted to it in pop culture... there's just so much buzz going on about it. I think it gave us all a good jolt.

Follow @carsonjdaly on Twitter!

(As told to Marc Snetiker)

Week 2 had its all-around advantages for everybody, including myself. There was so much going on last week, and most of it was new for all of us, so I felt a lot more at ease this week. Team Adam and Team Cee Lo had a bit of an advantage to be able to sit back last week and watch Christina and Blake's teams perform, but with that comes a little bit more pressure. You've had a week on the bench, you know what to expect, so now you've got to go out and deliver! But I think they hit the stage knowing what the vibe was going to be like, and they took full advantage of that.

We lost four people on Tuesday, and the mood the next day was very... real, I’d say. I think it became very apparent to our contestants when they realized that four of them had just lost their roommates. When your bags are packed and you're headed home, it all becomes very surreal. We've spent months on this fun, creative, collaborative television show, and once people start leaving, it starts to feel like the end of summer.

When I walked backstage earlier this week, watching some of the wardrobe fittings and talking to people and seeing how they were feeling, it was clear that the game faces are different now. It used to be high-fives in the hallways, and now it's sweaty-palm handshakes. I saw Pip yesterday and he looked like he was cramming for finals. It feels like the Hunger Games are about to begin — everybody's got their strategy in place, even the coaches.

In the studio, the palpable turning point of last night was Juliet Simms singing "Roxanne." It felt like the show gained a new energy the minute she went up, and that was an hour into the show. She just blew people away in the room, and it was the performance that everybody was talking about after backstage. For all the huge production last night, it's ironic that what seems to be the most buzzed-about performance was the one with no staging: just a woman and some smoke. I think it was a game changer for her. She did "Roxanne" in her own way, and people responded. It was a dangerous performance, everything that Adam wanted Pip to be but couldn't get. He wanted Pip to be dangerous and to rough his song up, to make him worry about where he was going with it. That's what Juliet did. Everybody was talking about Juliet.

Some performances last night were experiments, like Pip doing the Killers. A lot of people tweeted last night that Adam asking Pip to be dangerous was like Adam asking me to be dangerous (someone wrote). It's just not gonna happen! But leaps of faith were taken last night, and some worked and some didn't. Either way, it's all part of the process to find music's next big star. These are the conversations that are being had backstage, and I'm hearing a lot more of that now than I ever have.

Also, as we get further down the line here to picking a winner, let's not forget the transformations that have occurred, especially for these artists' families. There's a family section in my eye line, to the left of my teleprompter and the main cameras, and you can see Mathai's parents cheering, you can see Tony Lucca's wife and their baby, Tony Vincent‘s family, Juliet's rocker crew. Cheesa's brother was so animated when he saw her come out, Jamar Rogers' mother was jumping up and down like it was the fourth quarter of a basketball game. Just by looking at the friends-and-family area, you know who they represent, and it's so much fun because those people have been along on this journey as well. Watching the live performances is like Christmas morning to these families!

Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

A few thoughts on the performances last night: A lot of people seemed to be talking about Jamar Rogers. Jamar was another standout in the room, and not just because he had people on stilts behind him. That was one performance people were really buzzing about. It was a great way to close the show, and everyone left the studio with great energy because of it.

Cee Lo is positioning James Massone as this lady-killer, and it's incredibly smart. He gave James this crooning song to sing, and it worked — it felt like a TRL moment from 1999. Maybe it's because One Direction was just on SNL, or because I'm playing The Wanted on my Top 40 show, but in terms of boy bands, we're seeing this resurgence, and it's happening, whether you like it or not! I saw that with James's interactions with all those teenage girls screaming for him. The leaves and the little park bench was a nice backdrop for James to play around in, and it wasn't distracting; it was a good example of how staging really benefited an artist last night.

Karla Davis is a country singer, so for her to try and get through "Airplanes," which is really a rap song, was a difficult task for her to do. She did a nice job with it, but I don't think that highlighted her true abilities.

Is Erin Martin going to win a Grammy for her performance? No, but Erin has come a long way and she should be very proud and stoked to have made it this far. And it's in America's hands now! They might pass on her, or they just might put her through — you don't know!

You've also got Tony Lucca's performance of "In Your Eyes." Some of Christina's remarks to her former Mouseketeer partner, calling him one dimensional, raised a lot of eyebrows in the room, but at this point, it's all about what tickles your fancy. Everybody notices different things, and everyone has a different taste.

Let me also throw this out there: I've never heard the coaches talk so openly about whoever wins this being somebody that can really fit into the landscape of what's happening right now in music. There's a sense of the totality of artistry, and you're hearing that in the way Adam talked about positioning Mathai, or why Cee Lo picked "Roxanne" for Juliet. Before it was just helping them get through the battle rounds, but now we're getting close to what they do with real A&R at a label. What's your image? How are we going to market you? Who are you going to appeal to? They're asking these questions, and there's this sense of pride for these coaches as they work with the artists to answer them.

Tonight we’ve got our second round of live eliminations. Let’s see if America gets it right!

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(As told to Marc Snetiker)

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