Who was eliminated during the premiere of The Road? Details explored

CBS’ The Road premiered on October 19, 2025, featuring 12 artists opening for Keith Urban at a special performance in Fort Woth, Texas. 

Each participant presented their original song on stage, hoping to impress the crowd. It was the audience’s responsibility to rate each song on a scale of 1 to 10. 

Artists in the bottom three, based the public ratings, would face elimination. It would then be Keith Urban and Blake Shelton’s decision to pick one singer who would leave them. 

The premiere episode saw 23-year-old Blaine Bailey’s journey come to an end, as Keith and Blake decided to eliminate him based on his performance. 

Blaine was the youngest artist in the competition and enjoyed singing about the issues he faced as a native American.

He sang a song called T-Shirt, which unfortunately, did not meet the expectations of the experts.

While Keith felt that he “lost the room,” Blake noted:

“I picked that guy to be on the show. It’s not even about reading the room. You got that message you want to deliver, but you’re also here to win this competition.”

Consequently, they decided to end Blaine’s journey on the show. The two other singers in the bottom three alongside Blaine were Olivia Harms and Forrest McCurren.

The experts call out Blaine Bailey for having the “least amount of connection” with the audience in episode one of The Road

Blaine Bailey became the first artist eliminated from the series, while Forrest and Olivia narrowly escaped becoming the first boot. 

Before announcing their verdict, Blake told Blaine that he should always expect as much from the audience as he gave to them. 

With that, he added that compared to the other artists, his engagement with the audience was the least impressive. 

“We felt like maybe you had the least amount of connection with the audience tonight, and for that reason, we’re going to have tp send you home,” Blake declared. 

According to the experts, engagement with the crowd was one of the most important factors of performing live.

Consequently, they urged the contestants to keep that in mind moving forward in the contest. 

Keith and Blake shared similar advice to the other bottom three contestants, Olivia and Forrest. 

While reviewing Olivia’s act, Keith opined that her performance of the song Ain’t My First Rodeo was a “bit too reserved for this rowdy Texas crowd.”

Later in the episode, she was told to keep in mind the type of crowd she was playing for, which, in this case, was a crowd of cowboys who had come into town to enjoy their weekend. 

According to them, her choice of song was not enough to “rile them up.”

A similar review was shared with Forrest, who sang his song Small Prayers, Big Blessings.

Keith felt his performance was fitting for a cafe, where the audience would appreciate the lyrics and the storytelling.

However, for a Texas crowd, the act was not up to the mark. Consequently, The Road expert warned Forrest that the audience might not be “as forgiving” moving forward.

“Forrest, you bring such a unique take on performing. The thing you got to figure out how to do is take that guy and connect with people,” Blake said.

While Blaine’s journey ended in the first episode, the remaining 11 artists advanced to the next stage in the tour. 

Among them, Cassidy, Cody, and Adam were the three singers who “came out swinging” and were appreciated by the audience the most. 

Stay tuned for more updates.