The Voice had its most dramatic episode of the season on Tuesday, and it all started with one question: Where was 14-year-old Reagan Strange?
After she belted out Faith Hill’s “Cry” during the Top 10 performance episode the night before, host Carson Daly stunned viewers when he revealed Reagan wouldn’t be appearing on stage during the eliminations.
“I want to mention—Reagan Strange, I don’t believe, is here,” Carson told the crowd. “She’s here in the building, not feeling well at the moment. [She] isn’t joining us, but is still here in spirit and a part of the show as for now. Thinking of her. She’s offstage.”
The initial announcement went relatively unnoticed—that is, until artists like Sarah Grace, Kymberli Joye, and Chris Kroeze were put through to the Top 8, and the pool of remaining contenders got smaller and smaller.
Finally, Carson confirmed that Reagan was in the bottom three with Team Blake Shelton’s Dave Fenley and her fellow Team Adam Levine member, DeAndre Nico. Though normally these artists have to sing in order to secure the Instant Save and move on to the next round, Reagan wasn’t able to do so.
“Unfortunately, Reagan is still feeling under the weather. She’s not going to be able to perform tonight. She is in the building but not going to be able to perform,” he explained at the time.
The camera next panned to the teen sitting in a robe in the audience. “So there’s Reagan there,” he said. “When I open the Instant Save window, and I’ll tell you when I do that, you will still be able to tweet to save Reagan. More on that later. So she won’t perform, but she’s not out of it by a long shot.”
Indeed, Carson was right: Adam took the time following DeAndre’s rendition of “All of Me” to rally for Reagan, “urging” the audience to vote for her. What followed was a nail-biting battle that at one point had DeAndre with 36% of viewers supporting him and 39% on Reagan’s side, according to a graphic displayed during the show. Reagan eventually pulled through, officially joining the Top 8.
Though we still aren’t clear what exactly Reagan was suffering from—NBC had not responded to requests for comment at time of publishing—there’s no doubt she’s relieved to continue on in the competition.
Megan Stein is the executive editor for The Pioneer Woman, and oversees entertainment, features, and news for the website. Whether it's catching up on the latest true crime podcast, or re-watching the best '80s movies for the zillionth time, she's always here to talk about anything and everything relating to pop culture.
