And we're live! The atmosphere last night was electrifying. To me, there's nothing more exciting than live television, and we unveiled this new set that was big and bright and enormous. It felt like the Starship Enterprise, it was so huge. And the crowd was gigantic, filled with anticipation for these live shows, which are just so much fun to do. It's just like one big party. Backstage, we have this trailer village, we call it, where all of the coaches and myself and Christina Milian hang out together. It's just like camp! The whole atmosphere at the beginning of the live shows was just electrifying. You walk backstage and you see Sera Hill's dancers rubbing oil on their bodies, or you hear Chris Mann's warm-up (which is so loud, of course, and echoes throughout the whole room), or you find Moses Stone stretching. There's a lot of last minute prep, and it's all really fun. It's such a circus... in a good way!

Doing live TV is like being one of those swimmers you see every now and then that do the Polar Bear Plunge, where they swim in freezing water. It takes your body a second to get acclimated to live TV: I'm wearing an earpiece where I have a whole control room of people helping me, telling me to move the show along, and I've got a ton of business to get to, so for me it took a few minutes in the very beginning to welcome everybody and find my bearing. Then once we got to that first performance from Jermaine Paul, I could breathe easy!

I thought the performances last night were really strong. To start, I loved Erin Willett's performance of "Living for the City." Look at the uphill road that Erin's gone down this season, with her father passing away during the battle rounds. If anybody showed courage by simply performing, it was her, not to mention that she ended up being one of the standouts last night. There was certainly divine inspiration on Erin Willett's side last night in the form of her father, and her family must be so proud of her this morning. Not only did she get up on that stage in front of millions of Americans and perform, but she knocked it out of the park.

The live shows show you not only who has a voice and who can improve (and there were some good improvements last night, by Ashley De La Rosa, for example, and even Moses for that matter), but you also get to see who can command a stage and who can work with the other elements, as true performers have to. You can see who's at home up there, who's got that real confidence, and how they can build on that.

Even if they weren't your favorite performers, I want to highlight the confident people last night. Erin was certainly one of them. Jermaine Paul, definitely one. Obviously, Jesse Campbell. And I thought Charlotte Sometimes was very comfortable onstage. I really liked her take on Paramore, which showed off the range of her voice, which is pretty distinctive.

Chris Mann was also a standout. I absolutely loved his performance. You look at somebody like Chris and you start to think, I would have paid 10 bucks to walk in this place to watch this guy sing. And now you're starting to see that some of these artists could put out an album right now, and it would sell. They're real entertainers.

Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

I loved Jordis Unga. She hit one note in the middle there during "Alone" when you really felt the power in her voice. She needed to bring it last night, and I thought she gave a really strong performance and delivered.

Naia Kete got advice from Blake on her rendition of "Turning Tables." She wanted to stay true to who she was, to that reggae vibe, and Blake wanted her to stay close to the original Adele record. You saw that conversation play out, and she ended up putting her faith in Blake, and now we'll see if it pays off tonight in the eliminations. Blake wanted people to see that she was more than just a reggae artist, and ultimately I think it showcased her unique singing style outside of reggae.

If you think Moses is good but not great, and you're wondering why Christina likes Moses so much, it's because he came to the table with all these ideas. Behind the scenes, some of these people are actually taking their shot at artistry and working with our producers and their coaches to build these mini Grammy performances, pulling out all the stops. This is their moment, and their input counts, so they're all working closely with their coaches to get the vibe they want in their performances.

Probably the best example of the way an artist really got to produce their own performance was Lindsey Pavao. She worked with Paul Merkovich and the band on recreating the sound of that Gotye song to make it a little more dubstep, and a little more artsy with the smoke and the masks and the whole vibe. That style is very Lindsey Pavao.

The mood with the coaches was really fun and light in the beginning, which was set by Cee Lo's whole get-up with the wig. And then it just seemed to get serious. There was a sense of earnestness to this competition that we've never seen before between the coaches. Did you all notice that, too? Between Blake and Christina, especially, since they were up against each other. At this point, the coaches are all fighting for their artists, and you can see it in the banter. Of course, it’s all hugs backstage, but things are starting to get serious! They're so unpredictable, these coaches!

Tonight's new for us. We have a new element that's a kind of last chance effort for artists to save themselves. At the top of show, we're going to come right out and announce the six artists — three from each team — who are safe, and then the remaining six will have the chance to sing for their lives, and their coach can only save one. And what's really interesting is that tonight you're going to see how in touch our coaches are with America. They've had praise for all of their artists, but finally we'll get to see what America thinks. It'll be interesting to see if they're in sync... no pun intended.

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(As told to Marc Snetiker)

Catch up with Carson every Tuesday on EW.com

I loved the first battle last night. Those were two great guys paired together, and of course it was sad to see one go. James Massone has that great "How do you like them apples?" personality, and that storyline of true Boston grit and his family supporting his pursuit of music. And then WADE stole my heart, too. When we met him, he was a real student of music, listening to his iPod the whole day, singing Al Green. A little glimpse behind the scenes: when James and WADE went to rehearse, neither of them could sing "True Colors" at first. Confidence was such an issue with James and WADE at the beginning, and Cee Lo even had to sing the song for them during rehearsal! WADE idolizes Cee Lo, so when he was in that mentorship process with Cee Lo and Babyface, he couldn't sing in front of them. They had him get his confidence up by turning him around and having him sing "Love and Happiness" by Al Green towards the wall. That's how they started working it out with him.

And the battle, of course, brought Cee Lo to tears. That was a great moment in the show that I think shows how much our coaches really care about each person on their team, and how difficult it is to make these tough decisions about cutting people. Cee Lo's not a guy who's going to show that much emotion unless it's 100 percent pure and organic, but he did last night. It was a great way to start the show, and a real testament to how difficult it is for the coaches to cut their teams. Our coaches are so into this show for all the right reasons, and sometimes it shows up like it did last night, in the form of Cee Lo crying. You just can't make that stuff up.

Mathai and Nicolle Galyon were an interesting pairing. Behind the scenes, Nicolle thought she was going to get paired with Karla Davis, who was more of a country vocalist, or Orlando Napier, who's also a piano player like her, so Nicolle was shocked when she got paired with Mathai. I don't think that shock was captured in the episode. Sara Bareilles' "Love Song" was a good selection, and she's a friend of Adam's, so he had a special connection with the song and wanted the girls to do their best. The whole thing with the piano was interesting. The piano's been a crutch to Nicolle, and Adam just yanked her security blanket away from her — and it was a welcome challenge, because she really wanted to push herself and prove that she's a great singer and not just stuck in the pedals. Even though Mathai won, it was definitely close. I love the story of Mathai, by the way, because I think a lot of young people can relate to the relationship she has with her parents. When I met Mathai, she was a nursing student and her parents were not particularly happy that this was the career she had chosen. They were optimistically cautious to see how far this little TV-show pipe-dream of hers could go. But then she went out and killed her blind audition, made three chairs turned around, and now she's working with Alanis Morissette and winning her battle round. You could see that change of excitement in her parents, and I think that's such a great storyline that's playing out that a lot of people can relate to.

Christina surprised everybody when she decided to pair up our first MC in Moses Stone with the country duo THE LiNE. It's obviously rare to see country and hip-hop collaborate, but it definitely made for the most unique battle of the night. Moses has great stage presence already, so I think this battle was about Christina wanting to push Moses to tap into his vocal ability, and Lionel Richie helped him prepare for that. Moses wanted to show that it's not all about the voice, and after the blind auditions, other things do in fact start coming into play: the mentoring, working with coaches, and showing off your style in the live shows. He knows how to win the crowd, so we'll see how far that can take him. After the battle, Hailey from THE LiNE was not happy, and what you saw on TV was exactly the mood backstage. They both wanted it badly, and THE LiNE left it all out there during the performance, so she didn't want to be interviewed afterwards, and rightfully so. It was a tough battle and a tough loss, and I wish them nothing but the best.

Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

It was fun seeing Karla Davis working with Alanis Morissette. Again, until that mentoring process, she didn't even know what she was capable of. There was a great moment there when, with just a little bit of help, she was able to achieve something in her voice that she'd never been able to achieve before. Originally, she and Orlando Napier were going to do "Rich Girl" by Hall and Oates, but Orlando didn't know the song, and ultimately it just wasn't working, so they switched. I thought that was great because that's essentially Adam saying, "I'm not trying to throw you under the bus; I want you to feel good about this song choice." For those of you who think it's a TV show where everything's set in stone, that's just the way Team Adam works. With typical rock star moves, Adam's trying to push the piano off the stage for Nicolle Galyon, and here he is changing this song on the fly for Orlando and Karla. If it's not going one way, then hey, there's plenty of other options!

Team Blake's final battle was interesting. Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" is such a fitting song for Naia Kete, but so fish-out-of-water for Jordan Rager. Jordan really had to study the song, so it was a real uphill battle for him. But I have to say, I thought he did a tremendous job from when they first started tinkering with it to when they actually went into the battle round. Naia, meanwhile, exudes a lot of traits that Blake has historically liked, with that unique female singer-songwriter sound. If there was a rumor that Blake only picks people with cowboy hats, he definitely blasted that rumor out of the water last night with Naia. I'm curious to see where else she can go. Naia’s done some songs that are definitely in her wheelhouse, but in the live shows, you’ll get to see who steps up to the plate and who pushes themselves vocally, so it's going to be fun to see what the boundaries of Naia’s voice are.

Team Cee Lo of course bookended the show with an epic battle between Justin Hopkins and Tony Vincent. This is one of Cee Lo's all time favorite songs, and he got emotional again when he heard Justin and Tony rehearse, which I loved. This was really Cee Lo's episode. It's so refreshing to see that our coaches take this thing seriously and put their hearts and souls into these contestants. Justin and Tony have very different styles, but Justin sang his heart out, and I thought they surprisingly complemented each other very well. It's been awesome to see how far Justin has come since being in the Last Call house band, and I'm so proud of him, but it was a tough decision for Cee Lo. He has a track record of going into the live shows with people who can really own a stage and be theatrical, and Tony's definitely in that stable of artists that Cee Lo can showcase in big numbers. I mean, we call Cee Lo "Loberace," like Liberace, for a reason. He's the ultimate showman. Someone like Tony gives Cee Lo's team an edge, but had this been Team Adam or Team Blake, the outcome could and probably would have been different. But overall, an epic battle to close out the battle rounds, and Tony moves on to sing another day.

And now... we hit the live shows! I was in a wardrobe fitting yesterday, I'm gonna wear a suit, I'm gonna wear a tie! I'm excited. April's going to be the busiest month of my life, but I'm personally so psyched for it. The things that I do… I'm a radio DJ, and I talk live into a microphone every minute, and I created a show called Total Request Live, and that was me, live, on MTV for an hour every single day for over five years, so the live world of television is my comfort zone! The Voice has been new territory for me up until this point, so I'm ready for everybody to come into the live shows and see what happens. The music's going to be great, the staging's going to be bigger than ever, the set looks incredible. There's an energy to the live shows that's unparalleled. I think the 24 artists that we have are some of the most dynamic, unique and strong vocalists that have ever been on a singing competition. It's going to be emotional, and it's going to be highly unpredictable. There's a confidence about these 24 that's almost eerie. I'm interested to see how it all goes down in the live venue, especially when somebody has to go home, but I think we're about to see the talent just start to soar.

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(As told to Marc Snetiker)

Catch up with Carson every Tuesday on EW.com

There was a lot of ’80s love in the air last night! I had noticed that three out of the six songs were ’80s staples: we had a little Billy Ocean, a little Tina, and a little Pat Benatar. So the songs of the ’80s definitely helped narrow the fields down in the third battle round.

Pip and Nathan Parrett are really close friends, and Adam, of all of our coaches, specifically tells the producers of the show that he doesn't want to know any personal information about his artists before he pairs them up. He likes to decide his battle pairings based only on the vocals of the blind auditions, so that's definitely an interesting tactic for him. But even though he didn't know any of the personal details about the artists, he ended up picking Nathan and Pip to go up against each other. I remember Pip killing it in the blind auditions, coming out with his bow tie and suspenders, yet wanting to be taken really seriously, so he can be something of a silent threat. But he surprised a lot of us, and now look how far he's gone. He's going to the live shows, which is great for him.

Erin Martin and the Shields Brothers. Oh, how can I word this? It was definitely the weirdest and most polarizing battle of the night. Very weird, very polarizing, and very Cee Lo. I mean, Cee Lo loves a show, and loves a spectacle, and he definitely gave us one. Erin is a very eclectic person, very strong-willed and strong-minded, and obviously very different in her voice. Meanwhile, the Shields Brothers are trying to punch America in the face with rock & roll. So I think he just looked at these two like there can only be room for one wild card, so in some regards, it was actually a very smart pairing. The Shields Brothers were a lot of fun, and they had the best attitude, even when they left the show. I didn't know the level of seriousness that these guys really had about music, but they really taught us a lot about how music can just be a lot of fun. They were a really nice addition to The Voice, they brought a lot of character and levity to the show, and they were really a joy to have around.

I really liked the pairing of Ashley de la Rosa and Jonathas. I really bought the two of them together. I remember watching the rehearsals when we shot that; they had great chemistry, and they did a really nice job with "No Air." I haven't really had a chance to talk about the mentors too much in this blog yet, but Ashley and Jonathas are a great example how the mentors this season have really helped the artists get better. From when I've seen them, from the executive callbacks to the blind auditions until now, I'm really starting to see these young singers evolve. Imagine being in a room in a private lesson with a legend like Lionel Richie. You really do get better. I'm an avid golfer, so for me it'd be like getting a private lesson from Tiger Woods. If I had a few hours with the guy, I'm sure my game would greatly improve, just in the little time I could spend with him. You see that especially with Ashley, who really started to shine after being mentored, as we saw last night.

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We're in the heat of the battle rounds, which was on full display last night. There’s some fierce competition! It's interesting to see how different battle pairings approach the battle round. Some people get super competitive, some people get inspired by each other and end up being really collaborative, and some people (like Sarah and Juliet) just seemed to have a great time. For the blog this week, I really wanted to try and focus on giving you guys more behind-the-scenes nuggets and a little more insight into what you don't get to see on the show.

Right off the bat, Sera Hill and Geoff McBride came out swinging last night. One of the best parts of the show is giving people the experience and making things possible for them, and Geoff's a good example of that. Geoff's mother and brother had never seen him perform. Think about that for a second. They were never able to, and we gave them that opportunity. I know how much that meant to Geoff and them. Geoff also got to work with Lionel Richie, and when he left rehearsal, he couldn't believe it. He was talking nonstop to our crew about it and he felt so blessed, and he was so thankful for everything. He just couldn't believe that he was in the same room as him, that this whole show and experience was happening. One of the best parts of the show is just being around that. Geoff may have gone home, but America, his family, Lionel Richie - they all got to see how talented this guy is, and he appreciated that.

The battle between Charlotte Sometimes and Lex Land was probably the hardest for me personally. I gave Charlotte her envelope in New York City. I was there at the very, very beginning of her Voice journey, so I feel a personal connection in that regard. But I've been a fan of Lex Land’s music for a long time. I'm just glad that Lex had the Voice opportunity because I think she validated to a lot of people who know of her music that she's great, and, in the blind auditions, Adam and Cee Lo and Blake all complimented her on her cool, sultry voice. I hope she took all of that to heart. Lex and Miranda Lambert had a really nice connection, too. I think Miranda really saw something special in Lex. In terms of song selection, I have to just defer to coach Blake's strategy on wanting to tee up these two girls. Both choruses on Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” are good, down-the-middle plateaus for somebody to take a different approach, so that was a real battle. It was palpable.

I love Sarah Golden and Juliet Simms. These two girls, they're just both such great singers and both great people. I remember meeting Sarah in our executive callbacks. She's really funny and she's one of those people that is always a pleasure to be around. Like I said, different battle pairings approach the battle rounds really differently, and it's interesting that Sarah and Juliet seemed to be there to have a great time. There was a moment that I loved in that performance where they were walking next to each other and they sort of hip-check each other. It was this really cute, playful moment, and it's clear that they made a pact to just go out there, have fun and let the chips fall where they may. You see that on TV, and I felt that during their performance. I was happy that America got the chance to see Sarah's talent, because it's not often you get to see folk musicians on prime-time television, and I'm thrilled that the show supports so many different genres of music. Sarah said she was grateful to NBC and us for giving her a chance, despite how she looked, but I was at her callback audition and I can tell you, we never saw anything other than a really funny, talented, beautiful singer. I'm really glad the world got to see Sarah.

(As told to Marc Snetiker)

Catch up with Carson every Tuesday on EW.com

The blind auditions were a way for these aspiring artists to try and get their foot in the door, literally, by making one of the chairs turn, but that was a cupcake fest: This is where it really starts to heat up. Now that they've got their foot in the door, are they going to walk through the door, are they going to run through the door, or are they going to just tear the door down? You saw people who were terrified, and you saw them lose, and you saw people with real confidence completely flourish. The battle rounds really show how these artists perform under pressure, and you could feel it last night - it was palpable.

I thought the bookends of the night were the real highlights. Kudos to Adam for picking the first song between Tony Lucca and Chris Cauley. If you ever want to embarrass yourself, go to a karaoke bar and try to sing "Beautiful Day" by U2. That is a difficult song, but it's a really great song selection for Adam, who has these two guys: Tony, who is a true professional musician, and a guy who has earned his stripes on the road but hasn't popped yet, and Chris, who had a really great blind audition and has a little more R&B in his voice. I think Tony might have had a leg up going into it, but watching the battle, Chris was almost more impressive because I didn't see him having the range to be able to do what Bono can do. Chris was flexing muscles and giving Tony a run for his money. It was really even at a couple of points, but I think you saw a great battle. I thought it was a very solid, even match, and great way to start the battle round. Nerves, quality music, and two artists duking it out vocally.

Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

Anthony Evans and Jesse Campbell: both nice guys, both great singers, both incredibly heartfelt backstories. But who would have anticipated Jesse Campbell’s intimidation during the mentoring? He was flexing some real cockiness and playing head games with Anthony Evans, which I don't think earned him any favors with America's votes, unless people really like that sort of edge. His voice is just too good. That battle was ridiculous, and they did that song really incredible justice. There were two moments on The Voice so far that I'm so proud of: the RaeLynn moment after the Super Bowl, the very first blind audition, when I felt like you could hear the TVs across the country, and last night during "If I Ain't Got You," when I felt like the world was watching. I felt like everybody would be talking about that today. It was hair-raising. I thought, if the nation doesn't have goosebumps after that, then we all have to stop drinking coffee or something to get our feeling back.

Team Blake had an Adley Stump versus RaeLynn battle. I fell in love with RaeLynn, I think like a lot of other people, with that big giant flower in her hair singing that Pistol Annies song in the blind auditions. One of the great moments last night, though, was watching sweet little RaeLynn meet Miranda Lambert, her adviser. That was such a sweet, genuine moment. Miranda's name came up a lot with female artists last season, but Blake definitely reserved the right to ever make any sort of comparison to his wife. So for him to bless RaeLynn with this comparison to his wife, and for Miranda to really teach RaeLynn to stay comfortable in her skin, I think it gave her a huge advantage going into the battle. Adley did a good job in "Free Fallin’," but I think RaeLynn's somebody that Blake wants to take to the live shows, somebody to strategically put up and let America vote for. She's a crowd favorite, and I think she's going to get a lot of votes.

Monique Benabou and Chris Mann was the most lopsided pairing of the night. I was interested to see how Chris was going to stay in his classically trained voice, and I love that Christina gave him the green light in the battle round. He can keep going down that path, but there was a nice moment of Lionel Richie telling Chris, "It's the imperfections you have to embrace," and that's a really tough thing considering Chris has spent his whole life trying to become perfect. (I have to say, seeing all these big musicians helping out these artists is another really cool aspect of the battle rounds.) This was the David and Goliath of the night, though, to me. Of all the battles, this was the most unevenly matched, so much so that even during rehearsal, we saw Monique was crying. The emotion was really getting to her. Chris is a real gentleman, but he's got a loud bark. His voice is very strong and when he opens it up, it's very intimidating. This was a pit bull and a chihuahua going at it.

I thought the Cheesa and Angie Johnson pairing, singing "Total Eclipse of the Heart," was a great choice by Cee Lo. Staff Sergeant Angie Johnson, of course, is the one that we found from the viral video of her singing overseas. We've learned from her, given what she's done for a living, that she's impervious to pressure, although pressure on the battle stage being much different than in the battlefield. Cheesa, meanwhile, is very motivated, both by her family's financial woes and the sacrifices her parents have made for her. I knew this was going to be a slugfest because I knew these two — with great respect for one another — both wanted this one really bad, and it really broke my heart that Angie lost. It was so close. If there was a two-point basketball game, I think Cheesa won by two points. It was a tough, tough battle.

Team Blake's second battle was Jordis Unga and Brian Fuente, which was kind of the rock battle of the night, if you will. I love Alanis Morissette and it's so awesome to have an artist of her talent adding to our show, but "Ironic" was not the song I would have chosen for Jordis and Brian, because they're just rockers. I went into this thinking Jordis was going to win hands down, but I think she really kind of blew it, while Brian brought it. Jordis had the advantage, by a margin of maybe 60-40, but the number started floating throughout the performance, to 55-45, and then to 50-50. Jordis won, but she's got to get it together. That's why the live shows are going to be interesting, because you're going to see how America reacts to Jesse Campbell playing his head games against Anthony, or what the critical masses are going to be saying about Jordis, who can get a little desperate at times in her disposition. Attitude plays a lot.

There's a lot more to come. You haven't seen the best yet. As good as you thought Jesse and Anthony were, there are more epic battles like that. There are more come-from-behind wins, there are more tears, there are more big surprises ahead. We've got three more weeks of battles and it's going to be a fight to the death. March is an intense month, not only in college basketball, but on The Voice battle rounds. It is March Madness.

(As told to Marc Snetiker)

Catch up with Carson every Tuesday on EW.com

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