The only thing I know about Thursday (November 8) night’s “The X Factor” is that One Direction is performing twice.
How many singers are being elimination from the Top 13? Not a clue!
But I’m going with the hunch that Beatrice Miller won’t be one of them…
So click through and follow the results…
8:00 p.m. ET Straight from the horse’s — no offense, Khloe — mouth, the word is in that we’re only sending one act home. Oooh. They’re also going to reveal the order in which the 13 acts finished. That’s new.
8:02 p.m. It’s One Direction. Apparently! They begin performing on a series of toppling red British phone booths. How quaint and “Dr. Who.” They’re doing a song I’m going to assume is called “Live While We’re Young” and I’ve gotta say: I’m going to continue to mock Emblem 3 on a weekly basic, because of their Von Dutch-ready unappealing characteristics, but there’s no reason at all why Emblem 3 is in any way inferior to One Direction.
8:05 p.m. “Did America love One Direction?” asks Khloe.
8:05 p.m. Oh. Sorry, One Direction man. You’re not allowed to refer to Drew Brees as “a footballer.” But poor Drew Brees, who appears via taped message to express his desire to be the sixth member of their group. “What was it like working with Drew?” asks Khloe, as if the members of One Direction have any clue who Drew Brees is. “How hot is One Direction?” Khloe asks, when she’s run out of actual questions. And what was that awful Pepsi plug Mario Lopez tried doing?
8:07 p.m. Oh. This. I’ve generally muted this commercial when it comes on.
8:10 p.m. How is Lea Michele back to the “planted in the audience of a FOX reality series” stage of her career? Is FOX that terrified about ratings for “Glee”? I don’t exactly blame the network, but poor Lea Michele.
8:11 p.m. Let’s recap last night’s episode! Or we could just read along with MY recap of last night’s episode.
8:13 p.m. It is both adorable and marvelous that Beatrice talks about “My mommy Hilary and my other mother.”
8:15 p.m. “I thought it was awesome, really fierce and strong,” Cece Frey says of her rendition of “Eye of the Tiger.” She is incorrect on all counts. Demi Lovato may, however, be correct that Simon was “just PMSing.”
8:17 p.m. “That was a wild night. That’s for sure,” Mario Lopez opines.
8:17 p.m. Britney Spears and The Teens take the stage, followed by Demi Lovato an the Young Adults, L.A. Reid and the Geriatrics and Simon Cowell and his Army. How are we going to do this? And who still remembered that Formerly The Lylas are now called “Fifth Harmony”? Not me!
8:18 p.m. Wait. Mario said we were getting results in order. But now he says we’re not. The first person safe is… ARIN RAY. He’s followed by PAIGE THOMAS. The resurrected DIAMOND WHITE is safe, as is VINO ALAN. No surprises so far. JENNEL GARCIA is through for another week of awful Demi styling and song selection, while EMBLEM 3 is the first Group to safety.
8:20 p.m. And now Mario says again that we’re going to find out who got the most and least votes. We’re just not going to get that revelation with any sort of sense of logic. Goodie!
8:24 p.m. Shut up about the XtraFactor Ap, Mario. It’s becoming desperate.
8:25 p.m. One Direction is back. But first, we’re going back in time to watch how the group was formed from a quintet of individuals performing on the British “X Factor.” They are, indeed, pleasantly aspirational, aren’t they? It makes me believe in this whole “X Factor” process, at least somewhat. Their second performance of the night is a stripped down version of “Little Things.” There’s an awful lot of squealing from the crowd. I may not be the target audience for this lads, but they don’t inherently offend me and because of their accents, it’s my assumption that they’re more wholesome than Emblem 3. Here they are singing about the little things that make somebody beautiful, while I suspect that Emblem 3’s first album will mostly be songs about roofies.
8:30 p.m. Oh, I’m kidding about the roofies thing. GEEZ.
8:34 p.m. Six acts are already through. Who will join them?
8:34 p.m. The seventh act in the Top 12 is… CARLY ROSE SONENCLAR. Another no-brainer, as is TATE STEVENS. Whew. Finally, BEATRICE MILLER makes the cut, meaning all four of Britney’s acts are safe. And LYRIC 145 is also safe. Not bad, America. You and I have the exact same Bottom 3 (not that it’s a guarantee that whichever act that’s safe is actually anywhere near the bottom). FIFTH HARMONY is safe, meaning that with Jason Brock and Cece Frey, America selected the right Bottom 2.
8:36 p.m. Demi Lovato says that Cece’s voice is going to say it all. Simon says something snarky. But here comes Cece Frey, singing for her life for the second straight week. Cece decides to sing the prophetic “You Haven’t Seen the Last of Me.” But guess what? After singing well in her big song last elimination night, Cece’s a bit of a mess tonight. She’s not hitting wide swaths of the melody. You can tell that she’s earnest about what she’s singing, but she just can’t find the notes. Cece has really opened the door for Jason Brock.
8:44 p.m. Cece blew her survival song. Will Jason Brock be able to make this decision a no-brainer? Jason and a very important backing track are doing a duet of “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” It’s nasally, but it’s definitely a far superior vocal to what Cece did 10 minutes ago. I’m not sure it was *quite* the slam dunk he needed, though, to overcome the inevitability that Simon will support Cece.
8:46 p.m. Demi is sending Jason Brock home, of course. And L.A. Reid is sending Cece home, of course. It was always going to be down to Britney and Simon. And Britney makes the correct choice and votes to send Cece Frey home. Simon, however, votes to send Jason Brock home. So we go to DEADLOCK on the very first vote of the entire season. Sigh. That was predictable, I suppose.
8:48 p.m. The act with the lowest vote total is… Jason Brock. So CECE FREY is advancing.
8:49 p.m. “I want to say that I did it for the gays and for Japan,” Jason Brock says. “It really does make me sad to see you go,” L.A. Reid tells him.
8:49 p.m. On one hand, based on the Sing For Your Life performances, that was a horrible miscarriage of justice. But based on Wednesday’s performances and overall upside? Meh. Not such a big mistake. Simon supporting Cece Frey wasn’t shocking and it also wasn’t wrong, because you can tell where Cece fits in the musical landscape.
8:50 p.m. Mario says this will be the first time any singing competition show has ever revealed its voting order. After the break…
8:54 p.m. So how did America vote?
8:54 p.m. 11th – Arin Ray. 10th – Beatrice Miller. 9th – Lyric 145. 8th – Paige Thomas. [Demi expected Paige to do a little bit better.] 7th – Jennel Garcia. 6th – Emblem 3. [Simon is perplexed that Emblem 3 wasn’t first. He’s happy to have this information.] 5th – Fifth Harmony. 4th – Diamond White. 3rd – Vino Alan. The Top 2: Carly Rose Sonenclar and Tate Stevens. I’m not astounded.
8:58 p.m. Who got the most votes? 2nd – Carly Rose Sonenclar. 1st – Tate Stevens. “Obviously people in America don’t get out a lot,” Tate cracks.
8:59 p.m. Definitely Fifth Harmony placing ahead of Emblem 3 was my biggest shock from the results. I’m also a bit disappointed about Lyric 145 after last night’s fun performance. I think Beatrice Miller can definitely move up that list if Britney picks better songs for her. I think Arin gets a little bump from fans mobilizing and I’m already prepared to predict that Paige Thomas heads home next week…
Are you sad or happy to see Jason Brock go? And what surprised you about the voting?