‘The Voice’ Results Provoke Cries Of Racism After Chevel Shepherd Wins

The Voice had maybe the worst optics in all of television this season. Earlier in the season, Adam Levine pushed for voters to save Reagan Strange, a young white female contestant, over DeAndre Nico, a black singer. Nico and Strange were both facing elimination. According to the show’s rules, the two must perform an “Instant Save” sing-off. However, Strange was sick and couldn’t sing so Levine wanted to reward her and kicked off Nico instead.

Fans also pointed to Jennifer Hudson, the only black woman on The Voice‘s red-chair panel, coaching Kennedy Holmes, a black 14-year-old R&B singer from St. Louis, as another example of bad optics. Her elimination surprised fans as she performed amazingly three times and was expected to win, never mind reaching the final 2. She would do neither.

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Even the show’s co-host Sunny Hostin was confused. “Um I’m confused. How is it possible that Kennedy came in 4th place?” she tweeted.

Then, when country singer Chevel Shepherd won on Tuesday night, Twitter lost it. Both Shepherd and second-place finisher Chris Kroeze are both white. Kirk Jay and Holmes, third and fourth-place, are both Black. Just another example of bad optics.

“Eliminate the black people first,” wrote one Twitter user. “You’re not slick, but okay #TheVoice.”

Another wrote, “Done with #thevoice!! Blatant racism but this year even more so!!”

Others reacted the same way. Another tweet read, “Okay I’m convinced #TheVoice is rigged. There is absolutely no way that Kennedy and Kirk aren’t in the Final 2.”

Here are a few more of the best tweets.