I really enjoyed last night's episode. The theme now is prepare for battle! If the blind auditions are about falling in love with artists, the battle rounds are about earning your respect and earning your keep. It's one of the things we really liked about this format, and it's one of the things that's really risky, too. America's in love with the blind auditions, but all of a sudden there's an evolution here, and we're switching gears next week. But last night was about filling up the team, and although the coaches were still very picky, there was some really great talent.

I loved how the show opened with Whitney Myer. I love her story. She tours with her family, and it's like the 1970s in her world, like the Brady Bunch. But more importantly, I really liked her voice a lot. I thought she was really a strong artist, and got the show off to a great start.

I think the Shields brothers are a good example of Cee Lo proving time and time again that success in music is as much about talent as it is entertainment. Cee Lo is definitely the most business savvy of all of our coaches. Cee Lo sees more than just a good voice. He's already a step ahead; he's looking to who's marketable, who can put butts in seats, if you will, and that's the way an entrepreneur thinks. You've got to entertain a crowd, and you've got to put on a show. He looks at the Shields brothers like he does Tony Vincent, as artists that could really be entertaining, which is an equally important weapon to have in your team of 12.

One of my favorite artists last night was Lex Land, who's actually been on my late night show before. I saw her at South by Southwest several years ago and my staff and I loved her so much. She was really nervous and gave sort of a lackluster performance — she almost didn't sound good at points — and I know that she's capable of more, but she still got 3 out of the 4 chairs to turn around. She's an exciting artist to watch and it'll be fun to see her battle. That was a real highlight.

With Cameron Novack, I think the coaches made the right call. There was this talk about "Can we break the rules?" but as Cee Lo said, it jeopardizes the integrity of the whole show. The coaches are going to have regrets, and Cameron was Cee Lo's regret. Cameron seemed to be a lightning rod on Twitter. People wrote to me, "I loved him in an Adam Lambert way!" or they said, "Absolutely not." I got no gray area on Cameron.

I liked Wade's version of "Rehab." I like it when our artists give us their own take on a song. Wade is a student of music, as we learned, and he showed great respect for old school music and the Marvin Gayes of the world. He showed originality, he paid homage to the music that he loves most, and he showed so much talent and range. Really, that was a smart move by him. And he looked like a mini Cee Lo! They had a little brother, big brother thing going on, and their immediate affection for one another was contagious.

Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

I really loved Sera Hill. I liked how the show closed with her, and I loved her personality. When Christina came out on stage, Sera looked as surprised as Taylor Swift looked the very first time she won an award. And when Christina kissed her on stage, she was just trying to hold on to the kiss, grabbing it out of thin air. A couple people asked me last night whether Christina's performance was planned. The truth is, there are microphones around those coaches at all times if they ever feel inspired to get up and sing. What you saw there was an impromptu jam moment, which is the most fun to witness, just to see the look on Sera's face. It's one thing for her to be on Christina's team, but it's another for your coach to immediately want to sing with you. That was a really great moment and a looking glass into how, when the show is firing on all cylinders, it provides moments like that.

There was a lot of concern about my well-being after Adley Stump's mother jumped on me, literally, leaped across the room, like a scene from Black Swan. This was like my audition for Dancing With the Non-Stars. But I caught her, because safety first, Mrs. Stump. Everybody asked, "Are you okay!?" and I want America to know that I am very strong and I proved it last night. I am recuperating!

Another thing I want to mention that America will be thrilled about in the battle rounds is... new wardrobe for all the coaches! What Purrfect the Cat was for conversation during the blind auditions, Christina Aguilera's compact-disc hat will be for the battle rounds.

What people are watching throughout The Voice is a snapshot into what the music business used to be able to do well and just doesn't do anymore. There is a process to music: There is a discovery process, there is a mentoring process, and then there is a "let's see how far your dove can fly" process. Those are the three pillars of real A&R, and this is how the process happens. And there's a fight in it all, and the fight is the battle rounds. The battles are in the ring and they're ferocious. The coaches want to enter the live shows with the most diverse teams that they can get. It's like Gladiator: Win the crowd, win your freedom. It’s been about building these teams, and now it’s about fighting to stay on them.

(As told to Marc Snetiker)

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As told to Marc Snetiker:

This was a tricky episode. It was halftime before last night's episode started to air. The coaches came out in the third quarter, and slots are really starting to fill up, and last night was a good example of the coaches being their pickiest. And when they're their most picky, you start to see some good people get away... or you see them pick some people who they otherwise maybe would have liked to have not picked. Their judgment comes in question when they get really, really picky.

This week's theme was easy come, easy go. I don't know if that's harsh, but it felt like the coaches made some questionable calls this week, and I think they felt the pressure. I once thought I could guess who would pick who, but I felt like I had no idea what was going on in the coaches' minds this week. They showed signs of really doing the right thing with really strong performances like Jamie Lono doing "Folsom Prison Blues" or Monique Benabou doing Kelly Clarkson. There are times where it's sort of obvious, but then there are times when I wonder what they're thinking. To me, Ducky set the barometer of this particular episode, and then it just went all over the place after that. I don't want to get into the game — I have it easy, my job is to support the artists and their families — but I think Ducky was a good example of a good one that got away from the coaches. When I was watching it, I kept looking back like, am I seeing something that the coaches aren't seeing? I felt like he had great energy in the room.

Last night's episode also exuded a lot of interesting strategy. I think you see the diversity in Christina's team being built. She and Cee Lo both needed pop people, who they did not have yet, so they jumped at the opportunity for Jonathas. And I think, with Blake, he looks at his team and he doesn't quite have that niche coffeehouse singer-songwriter whose records could sell well at Starbucks. I think he saw that in Naia Kete.

Naia is right in Team Blake's wheelhouse, carrying over from female singer-songwriters with unique voices like the Xenias and Dias of last year. I think he went in really fast on her. The good thing about Naia is that she sounds really good and really natural just playing outside with an acoustic guitar. I mean, she's a street performer. The next time you walk down the street and see someone with their hat out sitting on the street playing music, just stop and think about that person's life for a second. It really puts it into perspective, the opportunity that Naia has with The Voice - coming in and getting an envelope and getting this real opportunity. She can sit on the street and sing a song; now she's going to get an opportunity to play in the big leagues. It's like she was batting 400 in stickball; now give the girl a real bat and a real ball and some cleats and let's see what she can do. And this is right in Blake's territory. He's got some great advisors in Miranda Lambert and Kelly Clarkson - it's going to be fun to see the vocal makeover of Naia Kete in the battle rounds.

When Jonathas came up, I think you saw an excitement from two of our biggest pop coaches - in Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera - because they both were thirsting for a very familiar, marketable voice. They both got excited when they heard Jonathas. Cee Lo actually really thought it was Usher; he thought we were pulling an April Fool's trick on him by bringing Usher out. They showed an insatiable appetite, a craving for pop, and they jumped on that with Jonathas. They build out their teams - we've seen Christina this year be so diverse, and it looked like she wanted to fill that youth pop slot, and she did that.

But here's the thing with Cee Lo: You can't put it past Cee Lo. Cee Lo knows what's coming down the line - he knows the show now. So he's collecting a team of people who are going to put on some of the better live performances, probably. Cee Lo's all about theater. And so that's why a guy like Tony Vincent is a good fit for Cee Lo. Everybody just looked at Cee Lo the minute he started to sing that Queen song, very dramatically. Everyone's like, "Oh, what's Cee Lo going to do here?"

Image Credit: Mitchell Haaseth/NBC

I think one of my favorites last night was the sandwich guy, Jamie Lono. I loved him. "Folsom Prison Blues" was my favorite song of the night. I'm shocked [that more coaches didn't turn around]. I thought that that would have been all four. He really did his own version of the song — he was quiet when he needed to be quiet on the song, and then he really showed the bigger side of his voice. I think last night was also a great example of some of the artists that we're getting. Not only can Jamie sing so well, but he did it with half a lung. The backstories on some of these people are really just incredible. As much as we want to make the show about our four coaches, the power of the show is really that it's a snapshot of America. I think at the core of why people are tuning into The Voice every week is because it's really about the pursuit of a dream, and it's about doing it at all costs. And we all just want to be a part of that because it takes a special person to take the stage and do that.

The four banger doesn't happen often, and we look forward to when it does because it really speaks to the fact that a mini-phenomenon is taking place on the Voice stage. All four of our coaches, who are all such amazing and incredible artists themselves, when they all come together and unanimously agree that this unknown voice is moving all four of them, then you really just start to think that if these four hear something... it's almost like, what did they hear? You almost look at Charlotte Sometimes differently. Yes, she went out there and did a great job with that song, but she must really possess something special in her voice that only a trained ear can pick up. I think it's cool because it lets us feel like a professional musician for a second, to witness those moments. And it just doesn't happen often when all four turn around, but when they do, it's really special.

Justin Hopkins played guitar in my house band for a long time. When he came to the blind auditions, it was great to see him trying to take that leap. I thought he was really nervous, singing that David Gray song, but Justin could be somebody to keep an eye on, after going through the battle rounds and the mentor process. But it's all selfish because I got to watch him play guitar and sing in my house band every night, so I was personally very excited for him. I was proud in just getting to see his wife and their baby. I know Justin as the rock star in my house band, and that was a few years ago, so now it's good to see him as a father. We're sort of similar. When he played in my house band, I was a single guy trying to do a late night show in a studio and he was a rocking guy with long hair. And now, five plus years later, we're both family men and have children, so it was great to see that side of him, too.

They're going in next week knowing that they have to fill up their teams - they've got to get 12 now. But the road to finishing isn't going to be as easy as our coaches think it is. They think just because they have a couple more slots to fill that they can just sit back and relax. It's not going to be that easy. I think there's going to be a little truth to The Voice saving some of the best for last. It's the last blind auditions, so these guys know that and they're still going to be picky, but they've got to push their button, so can they get their timing and chemistry right on their selections? I can tell you this: Christina, she's the pickiest. She proves next week that she is only going to press the button for her when she is moved by a voice at all costs.

Catch up with Carson every Tuesday on EW.com

As told to Marc Snetiker:

What you're seeing is a perfect snapshot of the amount of bickering and play fighting, and some of it gets escalated. I noticed last night Blake and Christina starting to go at it. That's something we didn't see season 1; they really didn't go at each other, and Christina had her hands full with Adam in particular. Next week, there's a whole Christina/Cee Lo thing that's out of left field. You never would think they would go at it. There's a lot more this season — we're seeing a different dynamic. I feel like they know each other a little bit more, and so they're testing their relationship as a coach and as peers in the business and "friends." It's playful, but it's highly spirited and it's very competitive.

If you like the coaches going at each other, it's next week, and it's from an unlikely place. Without giving anything away, Cee Lo and Christina have a few exchanges that took us all by surprise, and I think people will be talking about it. You start to feel the heat of the blind auditions, and it's the episode where the stakes really start to show through. The teams are filling up, and the coaches are more picky than ever. The emotions are higher, the stakes are higher. There are some tough no’s next week, and I think the coaches blow it on somebody in particular that I was very surprised at. This week, the theme was that the gloves were on and they were definitely going toe-to-toe. But next week, the gloves are off between the coaches.

They're being really, really picky, and what happens when they're really picky, when they only have a few spots left, is that good people don't make it. Sometimes they just panic and press their buttons on voices that, in that split second or in that two minutes, they feel has something special, and maybe it pans out and maybe it doesn't. If more than one chair turns, I think people are really responding well to the power shifting to this person.

Pip's a good example. He wears a bow tie and his name's Pip. But he went out there and really commanded the room, with his “House of the Rising Sun” rendition, which I thought was really, really great. It was a dominating performance from an unlikely source. So here's Pip, who his whole life has never had control over anything, including his own nickname, and now he's telling four of the biggest names in music. The power shifts to him and he gets to ask them questions.

The thing that struck me most about James Massone that I could relate to was how much his family meant to him. My dad is in a family business — he has a men's clothing store — and James' dad had the auto shop in Boston for 60 years. They were the tightest family unit I've seen yet on The Voice. They came in very, very close, and there was so much support for James. James is a good example that if you want it bad enough, you can almost will a chair to turn around, because he really gave it his all out there. He was so grateful and so emotional and he really wanted this so bad.

Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

Erin Martin is somebody who, if you looked at her, obviously she might have star potential. We have yet to really see her ability, and that may come back to bite Cee Lo... but it might not! We've seen that people do mature. Last season, people that I thought were marginal, once they go through this coaching stuff, really do get better. And Jordis Unga got a warm welcome. The female rock thing is not a commodity — it doesn't happen that much. There are not a lot of women coming out there really just wanting to rock the stage, so when the coaches hear that, their ears really perk up. It's something that diversifies their team, which Christina is really doing this year. They pay really close attention to it.

On the diversity of this year… we had Chris Mann last week doing that opera. I love that about the show. It showed through a little bit last night with Moses Stone, who's our first MC that made it to Team Christina. We're seeing a lot of really great diversity, and once the dust settles, these four coaches are going to have 12 really, really great, strong and unique artists heading into the battle rounds.

A lot of people react to my time with the families. There are a lot of highs and a lot of lows, but my objective is to make sure that they're comfortable. You want people to feel welcome. It's important to me — it's important to all the producers of the show, actually — that this become a really wonderful experience for people and not just a cattle call. I want them to feel like this isn't just a TV show taping. They're not just a number; they're all potential artists to us. I'm rooting for them, all of them.

Probably what I'm most proud of, being a part of this show, is that my parents and my son, who's 3, and my girlfriend and my best friend were all sitting around watching The Voice last night. I really was proud of the family television part of it. It means a lot to me. Television gets so racy these days — it's a really hard thing to do to be cool and popular, and I feel like The Voice really captures both of those things.

Catch up with Carson every Tuesday on EW.com