[Jack_]

BATTLES:

The BBC talent contest - which again features will.i.am, Jessie J, Sir Tom Jones and Danny O'Donoghue as coaches - has introduced a 'steal' twist to the battle rounds and a new 'knockout' stage prior to the live shows.

The 'steal' will give judges the option to recruit losers of the head-to-head battles to their teams after being snubbed by the coach they sided with in the blind auditions.

Following each battle round, the losing act will be given the chance to pitch to the coaches why they deserve to stay in the competition. Coaches will then have an allotted period of time to decide whether to press the buttons on their spinning red chairs and 'steal' the singer.

As with the blind auditions, if more than one coach attempts to 'steal', the power will shift back to the artist to decide whose team they want to join.

Each coach can only steal one artist during the entirety of the battle rounds, meaning they will have to choose wisely.

KNOCKOUTS:d

The coaches will then head into the 'knockout' stage with seven team members each - the six winners of the battles between the 12 they recruited at the blind auditions, plus their one stolen contestant.

In this round, artists will perform a 'killer song' of their choosing and the coaches will each pick three members of their team to go through to the live shows, creating a final 12 for the public vote.

Digital Spy

So essentially:

Blinds: 12 acts each
Battles: Down to 6 acts each (adding 1 steal to make 7)
Knockouts: 7 down to 3 each, for a final 12 (this is essentially Judges' Houses let's be honest)

I like the sound of them but I'm still not convinced 3 live shows (if that's true) is the way forward. Guess it'll be four acts leaving in each live show (ridiculous). Should be one per week a la X Factor, or even two per week.