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  • The X Factor USA Season 2 Top 10 – What You May Have Missed

    Via Creative Commons
    The Thursday elimination show is now one of the weirdest on television.

    Because the popularity rankings are now the most important part of the show (and I’m not sure why), they sped through the eliminations. Yes, I said eliminations. They did two of them. I find it a bit unfair to do two eliminations, which unless I simply wasn’t paying attention on Wednesday, were unannounced. And it shows a major flaw when they do double eliminations.

    What makes the X Factor different from American Idol (and I don’t watch The Voice, so I have no idea what they do) is that rather than eliminating by true popular (or non-popular) vote, they take the two least vote getters and have them sing off. The mentors get to choose who they’d like to eliminate. I think it works well generally.

    But instead, since they had to eliminate two acts, they allowed the popular vote to completely eliminate the first act. The act that received the least amount of votes just went home at the start of the show without a chance to sing (or rap) for their lives. Yet, the acts that finished second and third least popular were able to sing for their lives and the mentors chose who stayed on the show. Lyric 145, while I wasn’t a huge fan, you got did and did hard. It was completely unfair.

    By the way, I predicted that Lyric 145 may have hurt themselves because of what I perceived as rudeness from Lyric Da Queen on Wednesday. I’m still not sure what happened on Wednesday, but they were unfairly treated on Thursday.

    So what happened?

    After Lyric 145 were rudely sent home, there were two more acts that needed to be put up to get chopped down. When it was announced that Cece Fray was safe, she couldn’t believe it and was in the middle of laughing and crying. Demi was so happy for her.

    In the midst of all this, Taylor Swift performed State Of Grace. I know this is the new single, but I so badly wanted to hear We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together for the one-millionth time.

    (By the way, I’m still waiting for someone to blend Outkast’s Ms. Jackson with Swift’s song so when Taylor sings, “We! Are never, ever, getting back, together,” Andre 3000 can then come in with, “Never ever, ever ever?” That would be golden.)

    The elimination came down to Paige, Jennel, and Fifth Harmony. I think they just did that to screw with Simon. There was no way Fifth Harmony was going home. Both performances were bland, but Jennel’s was much more bland. She performed The Reason and tried to add some showy vocals, but it didn’t work. And then Paige performed Paradise which didn’t set the world on fire either.

    But there was a difference in performances. Jennel looked really scared and beaten while Paige had some stage presence and always gives off a look of a diva in dispair. I think voters will get tired of that look down the line, but it works for her now. She cares and cares a lot.

    Who went home?

    Out of the two, I think America got it right. Jennel needs some seasoning. Her vocals are really good and better than Paige’s, but she’s missing something. Paige stayed and Jennel went home.

    There was an odd ending to the elimination though. I think Simon was just pulling rank, but after LA and Britney chose Jennel for their elimination pick, it was Simon’s turn. If he was to vote out Jennel, Demi wouldn’t have to say anything. But if he chose Paige, Demi would have to pick. He threw a stubborn fit and didn’t want to give out his selection before Demi. And as it turned out, there was no need for Demi to have said anything because Demi chose Paige to go home and Simon then chose Jennel. So he did it just to make Demi have to play bad guy with one of the acts that she’s been mentoring all season? Dick move, Cowell, dick move.

    What was the voting order?

    1. Tate Stevens
    2. Carly Rose Sonenclar
    3. Vino Alan
    4. Emblem3 (+2)
    5. CeCe Frey (+7)
    6. Fifth Harmony (-1)
    7. Diamond White (-3)
    8. Beatrice Miller (+2)
    9. Arin Ray (+2)
    10. Paige Thomas

    What does it all mean?

    The top three stayed exactly the same. People love them some old dudes. And Carly Rose’s voice is connecting with fans even though it doesn’t seem her personality is, but maybe that is connecting too. CeCe Fray makes the huge jump which has to be the pity vote because I thought she was terrible again on Wednesday. And Diamond White takes the biggest fall, which means Britney may have to stop putting her out there to do what is pretty much the same song over and over again.

    Seacrest out! Whoops. Mario Lopez out! Or, how about this one? Khloe Kardashian Odom out!

  • The X Factor USA Top 12 (Again) – What You May Have Missed

    One Direction via Creative Commons

    Wednesday night’s X Factor live show was an improvement over last week’s show. Last week, the acts looked nervous, sounded nervous, and the mentors weren’t on their A games. Now they know their acts a little better and we’ll see more Vino singing soulful stuff and less of him singing wannabe rock.

    If I could describe Wednesday night’s show, like Britney, I would say in one word, it was hot, hot, hot.

    In my recap of the performance show Wednesday night for Popblerd, I opined that CeCe Frey was deserving of being eliminated. She looked like a fish out of water singing a song that she didn’t feel. She should’ve performed more Christina Aguilera.

    As good as Wednesday’s live performance show was, Thursday’s elimination show was all over the map. Instead of saving all the drama for the end, they eliminated someone in the second to last segment. Why? Well, this year, they have a rankings system. At the end of the show, they displayed the order in which the votes came in. Why? They didn’t really explain. I have a theory.

    I think it’s about audience participation. A way to get the ratings and participation up is to get the TV viewers even more attached to their favorites. Before, the voting audience didn’t really know how much their votes counted. They would only know if their favorite left the show and by then, it’d be too late and it’s possible they’d tune out.

    Now, if they see their favorite at the bottom of the pack, they’ll probably vote often and be a bit more invested in the results show which is the lesser rated show every week. But it also begs the question – if they care so much about how the votes were sorted out, why don’t they just eliminate the lowest vote getter instead of making the final two sing off? My guess is that they didn’t really plan it out because even though the audience now knows who is the top vote getter, it’s not like it makes any difference in the competition.

    So what happened?

    Since Diamond White came back to the show on Wednesday, there were thirteen to choose from rather than twelve. After One Direction opened up the show with their catchy song Live While We’re Young, Mario Lopez and Kourtney Kardashian Odom quickly went through the first six acts that made it to next week. One Direction came back to perform again and they quickly named three more who made it to next week.

    That left CeCe Frey, Jason Brock, and the newly named Fifth Harmony. There’s no way that Fifth Harmony deserved to be anywhere near the stench that was CeCe and they happily were pushed through. Thus, we had a quite predictable final two. Jason Brock hasn’t looked comfortable for a guy nicknamed Mr. Entertainment. Last week he was horrendous. This week he was fine, but his look is what may hold him back. The loud jackets and faux hawk aren’t endearing. Vocally, he’s better than CeCe, but she’s a much more interesting character for the show.

    For the mentors, CeCe performed You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me. It was a strong performance, even if it was vocally uneven. She looked determined, but worried. Jason’s performance of Total Eclipse of the Heart was exactly what he needed. It was heartfelt and authentic.

    Having the mentors whose acts are on the chopping block be part of the vote is dumb. Of course Demi wanted to send home Jason and of course LA wanted to send home CeCe. Britney decided that she wanted to send home CeCe and Simon wanted to send home Jason which made it a tie. To break the tie, the lowest vote-getter would be eliminated, which again begs the question, why doesn’t the act with the lowest votes just go home every time? If the mentor voting is dumb and you want the voting audience to feel more invested, why not just put it completely in their hands? Oh, because that’s how American Idol does it. And American Idol still nearly doubles the rating of the X Factor. Okay.

    Who went home?

    America voted wrongly and they hated Jason Brock just a little bit more than they hated CeCe Frey. My man Jason didn’t deserve to leave this early. No way.

    What was the voting order?

    12. CeCe Frey
    11. Arin Ray
    10. Beatrice Miller
    9. Lyric 145
    8. Paige Thomas
    7. Jennel Garcia
    6. Emblem3
    5. Fifth Harmony
    4. Diamond White
    3. Vino Alan
    2. Carly Rose Sonenclar
    1. Tate Stevens

    What does it all mean?

    I think it means that the country demo is hot and heavy for these shows and some of these acts will be singing country next week. But I wouldn’t take these too seriously. It’s clear that Emblem3 is far and away the best act of them all and they came in sixth behind Diamond White who the mentors didn’t even think deserved to be on the show. It also means the acts with an urban sound may be in an uphill battle. But I think we already knew that.

  • The X Factor USA Top 12 – What You May Have Missed

    Britney Spears X-Factor
    I’m thankful to be able to continue writing my X Factor recaps on Pop Rock Nation. And while writing the “live blog” version of the elimination show has been a blast, because of how late I watch it on the West Coast, it’s not really “live”. Thus, I’ll write more of a recap/review of the show, with the idea that the people reading just want the big happenings and not all the minutia.

    I’ll still have some of the minutia as I wouldn’t be me without the fun, but sometimes insignificant details. But we’ll hit all the big spots each week first and make them the priority.

    How did the mentors put their acts into the finals?

    There is no audience vote on this first show. That will start next week. Instead, with 24 contestants left, each judge was able to secure two out of their four finalists and keep them safe, at least until next week. The other two had a sing-off and their mentor had to choose between the two to decide who was safe and who was eliminated.

    The problem with this was that when it came down to the final two, it was the most nervous sing-off of all time. However, based on who made it through, I’m not sure the decisions were based on the final sing-off as much as how different they wanted their final three to be.

    For instance, LYRIC 145 doesn’t need to be anywhere near a final anything, yet Simon more than likely chose them because he didn’t want two young girl groups taking votes away from each other. And plus, LYRIC 145 is more different than any of the other acts.

    Other than LYRIC 145, did the mentors make any mistakes?

    Here’s who were sent home tonight: Willie Jones, Diamond White, David Correy, and Sister C.

    Britney smartly sent through Carly Rose and Beatrice. As long as they don’t fail because of the pressure, they are shoe-ins for the top five. In fact, they sit one and two in my prediction. That left Arin Ray and Diamond White who are completely different artists. Ray is needed because he’s the only young solo male in the competition left. But there may not be anyone more likable than Diamond White. And her voice is clearly better than Ray’s. While it was sad to see Diamond go, it was probably the right move by Britney. It was shrewd and proved she wasn’t crazy, at least for one week.

    So, the other decisions were correct?

    I had Willie Jones making it to the top 12 during my prediction piece, but he wasn’t sticking around long. And I didn’t expect Jennel Garcia to do so well on Wednesday. LA Reid made the right decision with his choices. Tate Stevens won’t win the show, but with Sister C gone, he’s the only country artist left so he could stick around for a long time. David Correy was far too annoying to stay on the show for any significant amount of time. Demi kept the Paige/CeCe rivalry alive which should be focused on more since they spent so much time on it during the auditions.

    And even though I loathe Emblem3’s image, it’s fair to say that they have a great chance to win this thing. Simon sees stars. The only thing that can stop Emblem3? Well, how about food poisoning/dehydration (we know what dehydration really stands for) or ruining hotel rooms.

    How’s Khloe Kardashian

    In a word? Terrible. In the first two shows, there have been many issues with Khloe.

    1. She’s too tall. She towers over all the girls and most of the guys.
    2. For whatever reason, Simon either can’t hear her when she asks him a question, or she talks too fast for him to understand.
    3. She cuts the acts off mid-sentence if they’re not answering how she wants them to.

    She also pauses and waits and seemingly can’t find what words to say when her timing with the mentors is off. My buddy @rcallen12 made a great call. We should start calling her Khloe Dunkleman.

    Which are the best five right now?

    Give me Carly Ray, Beatrice, Emblem3, CeCe Fray, and Jason Brock in the top five after this week. Though Brock has struggled so far, I still think there’s a certain charisma to him that will get him further.

    What should we rename 1432?

    Simon is asking America to help in the renaming of the former LYLAS and 1432. You can do so somewhere on the X Factor USA website.

    By the way, they may have had to change from LYLAS because Bruno Mars’ sisters have a group named The Lylas.

    I would name them New Eden’s Crush. Eden’s Crush was the all-girl group from the WB show Popstars. It was the first time we all saw Nicole Scherzinger who we’d eventually get tired of seeing.

    Eden’s Crush – Album Cover

    Compare that to the current 1432. Pretty uncanny resemblance I must say.

    Until next week …