DJariya

First LIVE Show of the Season!

The "Judges Homes" round has come to an end, and judges Simon Cowell, Britney Spears, Demi Lovato and L.A. Reid have selected the Top 16 acts that will continue in the competition. Find out which acts will wow the audience and which ones will crack under pressure in an all-new special two-hour-and-seven-minute LIVE episode of THE X FACTOR airing Wednesday, Oct. 31 (8:00-10:07 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed) on FOX. (X-217/18A) (TV-14 D, L)

Judges: Simon Cowell, Demi Lovato, L.A. Reid, Britney Spears

Hosts: Khloé Kardashian Odom; Mario Lopez



Read more: Listings - X FACTOR, THE on FOX | TheFutonCritic.com http://www.thefutoncritic.com/listin...#ixzz2Aw2raASH

Brian Gentz

Maybe I'm crazy but I don't see why Tate Stevens is sill around. He's got a great voice, but this doesn't seem like a show for a guy standing around singing country music.

madcougar

Interesting how some acts brought their A game and some just didn't get it done. Old Tattoo Head guy and Country Bobby Brown are probably going to go.

Iron_Giant

Love Carly Rose voice, but Britney Spears tried to make her into herself, what a huge mistake.

I think Carly has some morals and is from a good family, her face at the end showed that she did not like what Spears put together for her.

And I think Spears likes the other girl, Beatrice Miller, she said she is the best. Beatrice Miller voice is great, but Carly Rose voice is better - IMHO.

PhilFreestyler

I don't understand the hype about emblem3. Besides their boy band looks, I don't think they're as good as what the judges were saying.

DJariya

Damn, missed it tonight. Had a DVR conflict with Survivor and a Covert Affairs re-air that I recorded.

There's going to be so many DVR conflicts with this and The Voice in the next few weeks with other programming.

DRG

Khloe doesn't add anything to the hosting mix, at least on stage. They should just stick with Mario and have Khloe doing the little backstage bits.

Demi didn't do a very good job as a mentor last night. Hated her song choices and the productions were just way too much, especially for the first live show. Paige was lost in the audio mix. Country Bobby Brown doing "Here for the Party" just felt like it was picked by someone with a limited knowledge of country, like they only know the songs they've heard on karaoke night. Cece looked better as a brunette, and she just looks like a Ke$ha ripoff now. And then Mini De-mi, sounded good but I just don't buy "Home Sweet Home" as a Disney style pop anthem.

Britney fared the best, in my mind. Beatrice Miller was my overall favorite performer of the night. Even with the shaky spots, there was just something genuine and engrossing about her vocals there. Carly Rose was saddled with a poor song choice and I didn't get the schoolgirl gimmick for a singer like her, regardless of age, but she did okay despite that. The arrangements for Arin and Diamond were actually pretty clever and contemporary.

For L.A., David was good. Tate wasn't memorable. Vino was pretty bad. Then there's the lovechild of Eric Stonestreet and Zachary Quintos... it's one thing to court the gay vote, but WTF was that?

Simon's groups, ehh. Sister C were decent. Emblem 3 stuck to their same 'poppy Sublime' schtick... wasn't awful, but wasn't incredible, either. Lyric 147's performance was like something from 1992... if he wants them to make them more 'pop' at least copy something from this century like Nicki Minaj or even Black Eyed Peas. And the Gangnam thing in the middle doesn't count... it was just thrown in awkwardly and shows Simon doesn't get this genre at all. And 1432 or whatever they're called lacked the harmony they had at judge's house. Just a mess.

Iron_Giant

Mario perfect for the show, Khloe should not be onstage. DRG is correct, she should be behind stage doing some interviewing or whatever.

MikahC

At the judges homes, I liked Lyric145 best, but on the first live show, I liked Emblem3 best, which was a big surprise to me. I normally don't like groups and boy bands, but their performance had flavor. Maybe I should listen to One Direction one day. The Group Formerly Known As Lylas has some talented girls in it.

I like Beatrice, Diamond, and Carly, but I don't think any of them did themselves any particular favors.

There's nothing in the over 25's for me. I do like Cece in the young adults, though her performance didn't do anything for me.

There were quite a few moments when I thought the artists were with the wrong mentor. Lyric145 needs to be with LA. Britney needs the young adults, and Demi needs the kids. Britney may have been a child star, but she's 30 now. Carly, Diamond, and Beatrice are the new age of child stars, in some ways much advanced beyond even where Britney was in her day. Don't try to make them into little kids because when it comes to their craft, they're not.

If they really want to get the best out of the show, they should see which breakdowns make the best sense based on the talent that shows up each season, then pick the mentors for each group.

This really is my favorite singing show, though I'll admit AI is better from a purely singing standpoint. It's consistently amazing to me how acts Simon would have ridiculed on AI are supported on The X Factor.

Iron_Giant

I have always thought the same thing. He is a suck-up to his own show, hypocrite if I must say.

madcougar

Two different jobs really. On AI he was paid to be an ahole. Here he really isn't.

zuffy

Wow, I can't believe Britney picked Diamond to go home. Britney would have had the best 1-2-3 punch in the whole competition.

Bill Needle

I watched this with the wife and it was the first time I have ever seen Khloe Kardashian (other than a photo). I now know why she is has become such a massive punch line. What an utterly untalented train wreck. How in the world do they let her appear on this show and expect it to be taken even semi-seriously? Wow.

Tom Creo

Did you see the nips though?

MikahC

I watch for the talent so it won't stop me from watching, but I essentially agree with everything you said. I can only think Simon thinks America's interested in watching everything Kardashian. For me, it's a complete turnoff.

DJariya

Khloe doesn't bother me as much as a few of you. But I agree she's better suited as a backstage interviewer than a co-host. I don't know why Simon was so insistent on 2 hosts for this season. Mario Lopez seems like a more than adequate guy to carry the hosting duties.

As for the judges selections, I was fine with Willie Jones going. You really can't market that guy. Sister C was kind of a toss up. The girls are attractive and I thought their last song was good, but in actuality Simon prefers female Pop artists and that's how 1432 got the edge. The whole thing with their group name is getting ridiculous though. So Lylas was copyrighted?

I actually agreed about the choice to select Jason Brock over David Correy. I thought Correy's performance was bordering on obnoxious with his screaming.

As for Diamond and Arin. Could have gone either way. At least Diamond didn't cry like a baby like Rachel Crowe last season.

DJariya

Btw, what is up with Demi's appearance. I get she probably wasn't a natural blonde, but dang her eye brows look like caterpillars

mphtrilogy

lopez gets a death grip on every contestant and wont let them go..

this show is terrible and I've been a supporter hoping for much more.. but AI is superior.. not sure if it will be for this season as its future judges choices look scary... but we shall see..

but these production numbers for x-factor are horrendous..

brittany is a bad judge, no value add at all, not even train wreck watchable, she is dull, which in show biz, is as bad as it gets..
demi is not bad.. i kinda like her
la reid is harmless enough
and simon is a shell of his former self, owning a piece of the show has compromised him as a good judge and someone worth watching.. now he is neither...

the two host system is off the charts bad, and I cannot believe they make steve jones look good..

I will continue to watch... but mainly as this was the family's music show for the fall over the voice.. but next year I am not so sure...

Tom Creo

You hate the show but continue to watch. Yeah, that'll make 'em improve.

mphtrilogy

i watch with the family, commenting on the shows continued demise..

i said next year i am not so sure...

lol

DJariya

FYI

Top 12 perform tonight.

You may experience a DVR conflict if you also watch The Voice and Survivor. All 3 air the same time tonight.

zuffy

WTF? Diamond is back? Then my DVR of the show crapped out due to signal loss

madcougar

I think Brock will be going home...

Iron_Giant

Watched the show last night.

Was blown away by Carly Rose when I watched it live with my surround sound turned on.

Then, I watched it several times this morning on YouTube and looked up the words to the song. The performance wowed me even more.

I am a sucker for a beautiful voice, married a woman with a 4 year degree in Vocals and she has sung around the world (San Fran Philharmonic...).

RoboDad

So, we're back to the stupidly-overproduced numbers that make it impossible to tell whether or not the singers have talent, since half the time you can't even hear their voices over the background singers and overdriven music.

And watching Demi's reaction to the "performances" only shows that she has no clue what she is doing on the show. All she cares about is making the production numbers as huge as possible. Also, someone really needs to sit her down and explain that she's making herself look like a caricature with the badly-dyed hair and huge brows.

About the only enjoyable thing about the episode (aside from Carly Rose, Vino, and Tate's performances) was watching Simon rip Demi to shreds.