Image Credit: Lewis Jacobs/NBC

It has been four years since Sanjaya, err, graced the stage of American Idol, but he’s still apparently one of the greatest punch lines for the comics warming up the crowds at reality show singing competitions. Take last night at the live, semi-finals round of NBC’s The Voice, where warm-up comic Bill was pumping up the crowd before the competition. “Cee Lo is performing tonight!” he roared to the crowds inside Stage 16 on Warner Bros.’s Burbank lot, in an attempt to get the masses enthusiastic.

And then he added: “Sanjaya is performing! No, I wouldn’t do that to you…” When he said that, I found myself flashing back to the multiple times during my evenings in the American Idol studio, when the warm-up comic for Fox’s karaoke behemoth would use the very same joke. Ba-domp-ching! Sanjaya! To that I say: C’mon, give Sanjaya a break, folks! It has been four years — get a new joke!

But alas, Sanjaya was far from the only excitement inside The Voice dome last night, as the top eight contestants were whittled down to just four — one from the team of coaches Christina Aguilera, Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, and Blake Shelton. What else happened on the inside that you might not have seen on screen? Well, since it was only an hour-long show, it was a short evening, but here’s what I spied for you all:

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