Blake Shelton, Kelly Clarkson, Nick Jonas and John Legend are doing their best -- with a hand from their loved ones!
The Voice season 18 has looked a little different thanks to the ongoing pandemic, but the coaches are rolling with the punches!
ET caught up with Kelly Clarkson, Blake Shelton, Nick Jonas, John Legend and host Carson Daly during a conference call with press following Tuesday's live results show -- during which the Top 9 competitors were whittled down to the Top 5 -- and they opened up about filming from home and their strategies for the final shows.
"Obviously, we'd like to be there in person with them and it's, you know, the whole physical energy of the show is a little different, but at the same time... it's kind of an advantage to the artist to be so comfortable in your home and getting to perform from your house," Clarkson said of the remote live shows, which began after this season's pre-taped Knockout Rounds. "In some respects, it's kind of cool that they, you know, really can get out of their way and really just perform really well... I think that physical energy is missing, obviously, but it's exciting."
"I think the weirdest part is not being able to hug them goodbye after they're sent home, it feels a little empty," Legend agreed. "You wanna be there to comfort them a little bit as well, but I do enjoy seeing them in their home, I do enjoy the fact that they get time in their own creative space to work on the arrangements and work on the songs so they feel really comfortable."
Like the performers, the coaches have each been filming from their homes -- Clarkson from her ranch in Montana, Shelton from his home in Oklahoma and Jonas and Legend from their homes in Los Angeles -- and they explained that they've needed the help of some family members in order to film themselves. Even host Daly has recruited his 11-year-old son, Jackson, to help him produce his segments!
"He's been extra busy," shared Daly, who is also still co-hosting the Today show from his California home. "[Jackson] has been contributing to Nightly News with Lester Holt, on their kids edition YouTube channel, and I'm also shooting The Voice in our pool house. There's a good chunk of NBC broadcasting coming from this house in Pasadena."
"My husband is now a lighting technician and audio-visual technician," Clarkson joked of hubby Brandon Blackstock. "He's a director, and he's also playing cowboy on our ranch. So, he's got his hands full, we both definitely have our hands full, but you know, it's not just this job, it's the [daytime] TV show, it's also making records, it's a lot of new things happening for us... 100 percent none of this would be happening without my partner in crime."
As for Shelton, he's getting hair and makeup done by girlfriend Gwen Stefani, while her brother, who is quarantining with their family in Oklahoma, has been helping film his segments. "If he wasn't here, I'd be screwed," the country singer joked.
Legend shared that wife Chrissy Teigen has also helped him film some of his at-home segments -- and daughter Luna has fun popping into shots! -- while Jonas said his wife, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, tries her best to keep their home a spoiler-free zone!
"Priy is such a big fan of the show and has been for a very long time," he shared. "Obviously, we are on a time delay here in L.A., if I tell her what happens, she gets so mad at me, so I have to remain quiet and I walk back after we wrap up. I try to act like nothing happened, and then we go and watch it live."
While Daly teased the JoBro that he was "living in a Starbucks" after he showed off his at-home barista skills this week, Jonas said he's been feeling nothing but love from his Voice family, even during social distancing.
"At different points, we have all said versions of the same thing, which is just that we have had to find new ways to approach connecting with each other, beyond just the show as a whole, but in life in general," he explained. "We just had to find new ways to connect with our artists and their families, which I think, in turn, has helped me kind of have a way into coaching which I did not know I would have."
"When you connect with someone’s family and their inner circle, who are, in this case, quarantined with them, you get a better sense of how to work with them and what you say will grow and get better and what will connect that one line from the song that they have not quite nailed yet, --maybe it's their relationship with their mother or their father or their sister," Jonas continued. "I think that has been really special... Having these different innovative ways of connecting is really exciting and important and whatever happens over the next six months to a year, however long it will be, I want to stay connected to my people on the show, as well as my fellow coaches and Carson, my Voice family."
That's not to say things aren't about to get competitive. As they head into the finals, the coaches each have one remaining competitor apiece, except for Shelton -- currently the winningest coach in Voice history -- whose team member, Toneisha Harris, won Tuesday's five-way instant save to become the final member of the Top 5. But does that give him an advantage or a disadvantage?
"There has been a lot of talk among us coaches over the last seasons," shared Shelton, who also has the only remaining female competitor, in Harris. "If you have multiple people in the finale, it kind of splits up your vote and could affect if you win or not. I think about the last few seasons, I have not won anything, I have had multiple people."
"Now, the exception to that, which will live on forever, is the season or two that I had multiple people in it and I beat Adam multiple times," he joked, getting a nostalgic crack in at former coach Adam Levine. "It just shows how unpopular he was... I am looking at all the faces on the screen here and these are all very popular people, and I am going, wow, it's a lot easier to love these people compared to how easy it was to hate Adam."
The Voice airs Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on NBC.
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