Last night The X Factor judges and producers stretched out 12 minutes of results into two full hours of repetitive footage and commercial breaks. The show used quick cuts of multiple hopefuls, intercut with footage of their judge/mentor breaking the news to create "suspense" about who would make the cut and who would not. It was annoying.
I'll spare you the full-on recap of the hemming and hawing and get right to the results, after the jump.
Team Nicole: Over 30s
Dexter Haygood (49), Josh Krajcik (30), LeRoy Bell (60), and Stacy Francis (42) make up Team Nicole. Dexter is the wild card here, but Nicole says she "choose[s] with her heart, not her head." I like Dexter a lot, but how about "ears"? Did anyone suggest Nicole choose with those? He's not the strongest, but he has style and oddly enough, I think Nicole is the best fit to mentor him. Nicole gave the boot to Christa Collins (I do NOT hate to say I told you so in this case), Elaine Gibbs and Tiger Budbill. Grr. Bye Tiger! We liked you.
Team L.A. Reid: The Boys
Brian Bradley (15), Marcus Canty (20), Phillip Lomax (22), Chris Rene (28) are on L.A. Reid's team. I found L.A.'s choice of crooner Phillip Lomax over hot/arrogant Brennin Hunt a little shocking; Reid warns Lomax he can't be Sinatra on every song. Never too late to start, I guess. Nick Voss, Tim Cifers and Skyelor Anderson go home.
Team Paula: The Groups
Out of all of the mentors, I think Paula does the best job of giving constructive criticism during the tension-building filler portion of the program. (Nicole just spouts nonsense while she tries to build suspense.) Paula chooses both judge-assembled teams: Lakota Rayne and InTENsity; also going through are The Brewer Boys (brothers with Old Bieber Hair) and The Stereo Hoggz. 2 Squar'd, 4Shore, Illusion Confusion and The Anser go home.
Team Simon: The Girls
Simon is right when he says he has the toughest category -- he could easily take six or seven of his girls to the live show and be competitive. Simone Battle (22) makes it over Jazzlin Little, so Simon must really see something in Simone because "remembering the lyrics to songs" isn't something we've seen from her. Drew Reniewicz, 14, goes through as does Tiah Tolliver, 20, but Simon says goodbye to Tora Wiloshin and Caitlin Koch. In the final pair-up (real or via the magic of TV editing) of the night, Melanie Amaro (19) goes head-to-head with Rachel Crow (14). Simon tells Rachel she gave the best performance of the day at the 'judges' house' round and puts her through to the live rounds -- Melanie Amaro goes home! It's a shocker, frankly.
But wait!
That evening, while Simon sits sipping Pepsi al fresco at a candlelit patio table, while a (consultant? girlfriend? extra?) sits surfing the Internet on a laptop, he says he's made a monumental mistake. He consults his fellow judges, who give him the go-ahead to bring one last contestant onto his team. After Simon flies to Sunrise, Florida, and begs for forgiveness ...
... Melanie Amaro joins the live show!
The next episode of The X Factor airs Tuesday, October 25, at 7 p.m. CT. You can see video excerpts from last night's episode online.
