DVDChris

Demi Lovato really showed how immature she is last night. I think she's worse than Paula as a judge.

What did everyone think of Lyric145's version of Supercalifragilistic? I kinda liked it.

I have a weird feeling that the 3 guy group, Element3(?), is going to win this thing.

Brian Gentz

really cool to do the rankings.

some really shocking stuff. Most people for better or worse thought Emblem3 were front runners and the ended up in the middle of the pack. And Tate Stevens at number one makes no sense.


(as a weird aside, I was just thinking that it would be interesting if one of these public vote shows released the week to week rankings after the show was over to see what kid of fluctuation there was... this is even better.)

RoboDad

No big surprise in who went home, but I also liked the ranking feature, especially because of the top three.

DWilson

I loved the fact that they gave the rankings, though I wonder if they'll keep doing it if it shows a clear and undeniable winner (for example, Nigel Lythgoe has said that both Carrie Underwood and Scotty McCreery were the top vote-getters pretty much every single week of their seasons of "Idol", and that's why the show doesn't reveal actual rankings). What the rankings show is that "Factor" did not draw the audience or the demographic it seems to be aiming at (young people who buy/download Pop Music).

A theory that's been mentioned elsewhere is that posting the rankings is Simon's way of shaking up the audience, since he obviously feels complacency on the part of the audience is the problem. Of course, this could also backfire and discourage the audience.

Patman

I'm sure the producers of X-Factor aren't there to discover the next big country star.

Jacoby Ellsbury

Wow, popular show huh?

Boy, do the judges hate Cece Frey? They killed her last night as usual and I thought it was a pretty good performance. I thought she was the best singer in the competition before the finals started, but she hasn't been that great since, but still a top 5 for me and her personality is not great and they have basically set her up from the beginning, mic-ing her and having her hating on the other contestants. Every other time they have done this that contestant was usually terrible in their own performance, but she knocked it out of the park with that Christina song in her initial audition and then when she sang "I will always love you" in the semifinals that was the best cover I have heard of that song.

The way they crap on Cece, they equally over praise Emblem 3 big time. So the older brother has a decent voice, if he was by himself and did one of these covers he would not even had his audition shown on TV. You throw in his younger brother who stricly sings backup and is always insecure and out of place on stage and then you got the other guy who raps. I mean their audition song was very good, but for them to be doing karaoke covers they are terrible.

I'd be sending Arin(who I surprisingly like, look at him as a young less talented Usher) or the rap group home this week, both were terrible. Don't really like the rap group at all. Patch is decent for a female rapper, but really nothing special and the other two are out of place and sideshows.

RoboDad

Please send the rap group home. Please...

DVDChris

I liked Cece's voice in the audition rounds. Her blond makeover looks terrible in my opinion.

DVDChris

Oh man, I haven't caught up on the DVR for this week's show, but I watched Cece's "All by myself" performance. That was bad, really bad. I think she's being coached wrong.

tommyp007

Agreed! Going into the live shows, she was my pick. But her songs have been poor and the blonde look just isn't cutting it for me.

covenant

I wish there was a way the contestants could switch over to a different mentor if they felt like it. I think Cece could do better with someone else.

DRG

The problem I have with Lyric 145 is that they (or Simon) haven't figured out how to make a rap act work within the constraints of the show and its themes. As annoying as Astro was last year, I think his approach made more sense for a hip hop act: use the original song as a "sample" and chorus, but put your own rhymes and flow over it.

Jacoby Ellsbury

You are right about the handling of hiphop acts. We judge the rest on how well they can sing as well as stage presence etc. There's not much talent involved with rapping if you aren't writing your own stuff, what are we judging breath control, flow? It needs to be looked at like a freestyle competition, 99% of those competitions the contestants are using written material anyway.

That was real stupid the way Simon made Demi vote first last night. I thought he was trying to angle for a tie. But he basically just put some mistrust between Demi and Paige now. Jennel and Cece were my favorite acts prior to the judge's houses. Jennel's ooh lala song and Sweeter were the most memorable performances of the auditioning rounds for me, but like Cece they totally screwed up her direction. Just realized how terrible a mentor Demi is, good judge, blows away Britney, but she is killing her acts. She's hit with Paige as I don't think Paige is a great singer at all, but her look and stage props have been good, but Demi is terrible with her other two.

Pizza

Nothing stupid about it. He knew exactly what he was doing.

MikahC

I would have said everyone else is competing for 2nd place as Carly Rose Sonenclare stands out to me, but that's why you have the voting. It turns out Tate's the man. Of course if you like country music, he's the only one singing it, so your voting options are limited. Maybe other artists are splitting votes. That'll come out as time goes on and more people are eliminated. For instance, if/when Diamond and Beatrice go home, will Carly pick up enough votes to move ahead of Tate? They already told us it's extremely close (less than 1% between them).

I don't know if it's ultimately good for the show, but I like knowing more details about the voting results.

Cece's a bundle of desperation and insecurity. I feel like when she's performing, she's looking at the judges to see if they're being wowed, sees they aren't, and it goes downhill from there. Demi's not doing her any favors. She needs to just pick a song she feels, forget the audience, perform the heck out of it, and let the cards fall where they may. Nobody's guaranteed a win.

I don't agree there isn't much talent involved in rapping if you don't write your own stuff. Voice matters. Style of delivery matters. I'm no rapping pro, but as an amateur musician back in the day, I've had a few rappers ask me to write backing tracks for them. When we weren't working, some of them would play around with a competition rapping the exact same song in turn. Some were better than others even though none of them wrote the songs, and they were saying exactly the same thing.

That's one of the reasons I can understand LA when he said to Lyric 145, "That's not hip hop." It takes me back to the days of Will Smith and how he was a very successful commercial rapper, but within the hip hop community... not so much. MC Hammer? Nah. Even people like LL Cool J. Because at the time, people like Grandmaster Melle Mel, or even Kool Moe Dee were supremely better at it.

That's one of the reasons I was so high on Astro last year despite his issues. You have to expect a show like this to struggle with handling something like hip hop. But I think the exposure it good. If America ultimately doesn't vote for it, so be it. The Voice even had someone sing Mariachi. While I'm not going to listen to that, I think it should be out there for people to vote on. As it turns out, the singer to performed it did very well. Let the voting decide.

Jacoby Ellsbury

How about bratty, is that a better adjective? It was stupid because I as a viewer didn't like the move, I'm sure I am not the only one. There's enough problems with the show from Khloe to technical difficulties to Britney's lack and huge need for a writer. So to do intentional things that negatively effect the viewing cause he has to have his way is stupid.

RoboDad

What he did was simple. He knew he was going to vote Jennel off, but in doing so it would have made it so Demi didn't need to voice her own vote. He wanted everyone to know where Demi stood, so she didn't get off easy.

Obviously, Demi hedged her vote by voting for Paige. That way, if Simon also voted for Paige (which I suspect Demi was hoping for), then the choice would have been in viewers hands. And even with Simon voting for Jennel, Demi could try to say that the result wasn't her fault.

DRG

Curious if the Demi fans threw all their support toward Cece since she seemed to be in the most danger, and in the process the other two got the shaft.

I really liked Demi in the audition rounds, but as a coach she's become a little too petulant. Her defiant attitude toward constructive criticism is hurting her acts.

DVDChris

Petulant, I had to look that word up. That's exactly how she acts, and I learned a new word today.

spoon81

There's been a bit of bad press on Chloe K.'s hosting abilities lately. Mario comes off so smooth and professional, and Chloe reminds me do a semi-drunk drag queen.But that makes her scenes oddly entertaining.

Can't stand CeCe's personality. I think the other two young girls could be in final three.

RoboDad

No talk about tonight's performances? Personally, my favorite three didn't disappoint at all, and I have to say that Carly Rose gave one of the best performances of Somewhere Over the Rainbow that I have ever heard. It was simply amazing.

But yeah, Khloe is pretty out of her element. Tonight wasn't quite as bad, so maybe the hosting coaching is starting to sink in, at least a little.

MikahC

Carly - I'd watch the show weekly just for her.

Emblem3 - I don't think any of the singers in Emblem3 is a particularly good singer, but I still like the group.

Fifth Harmony - I think the female singers are all decent singers individually, but they are weak on harmony. I don't see them staying together as a group after the show.

Diamond White - Good but not great. She's a solid B for me. She seems to be OK with knowing she won't win, but that she gets to perform and build a fan base every week she's there.

Beatrice - Like Diamond, a solid B for me. Probably her favorite performance for me was Pumped Up Kicks. She's under tremendous personal pressure and it's affecting her negatively. I get the feeling she needs to win, but she knows she can't be Carly. That's tough position to be in at 13.

Arin Ray - He's not the best singer. The best hope he'd have is to build some fans for what he wants to do once he leaves the show. But he hasn't even been doing that. Apparently he wants to be in the Usher school, which is a little tough for me because I still don't get into Usher after all these years. Arin's on borrowed time.

Cece Frey - Always looks like she's about to fall apart and is desperately seeking approval. Maybe she needs Sally Field as a mentor. There's a voice there, but her desparation and insecurity takes me out of her performances. No wonder she was so over the top "confident" at the beginning of the show. Demi telling her she sometimes comes off as unlikeable seems to have gutted her.

Paige Thomas - She's a cute girl. She has a voice. She has style. But there hasn't been anything that has made me say I want to see Paige Thomas next week. Who is she as a singer?

Tate Stephens - I was really surprised to find out he's been #1 the last two weeks. Country fans have really come out for these singing competitions (Carrie Underwood, Scotty McCreery). It helps that he's not splitting the "country vote" with anyone. I enjoy listening to him sing. I see a little Clint Black or Garth Books in there.

Vino Alan - Another surprise for me. I don't see him winning. His mannerisms are distracting for me. He's not bad, but I haven't heard or seen anything compelling.

Jacoby Ellsbury

Judges still ganging up on Cece. I thought she had the 2nd or 3rd best performance Wed. Night. Carly was first and possibly Paige Thomas giving her best performance to date was 2nd and it still got her the boot. I think Paige has only one good note, but she is a good performer, good looking and the best dancer on the show which she finally showed this week. Plus she has a sad personal story. Mom died early on, apparently no dad in the picture, again no dad in her daughter's picture either.

Really thought it was time for Diamond to go last night, but the Judges see Vino as a threat so they dumped him. Vino needed to do some 60s soul stuff or something like Pearl Jam or Soundgarden or hey Temple of the Dog's song, maybe a Creed or Godsmack type song.

Judges really praised Diamond's performance this week, I thought it was terrible. I think she is a prodigy, but it was her time to go this week.

Annoyed with Emblem3's praise each week. Hoping they do some original stuff next week as they hinted. Their audition was their best performance.

Fifth harmony I dig, I can see them making records. What a turn around from last year to this year for the groups category.

Tate is a nice guy, but just not into him or country music at all.

I'm really high on Cece, but I know she's getting by by the skin of her teeth each week.

Carly is obviously the best.

Tom Creo

See, I can give two fucks about their personal stories. If you can't sing or perform...get the fuck off the stage. Enough with these sympathy votes. Also, I think the critisism of CeCe is helping her. No one wants to see someone get their ass handed to them week after week.

I agree, Diamond was terrible this week and you know who else I think wasn't just right? Carly. They should ban Whitney, Adele, Celine, and Mariah songs all together.

Did L A purposely sabotage Vino? Wasn't he in the top 3 or 5 in voting the previous weeks?

I just wanna strangle Lovato and damn,.......Britney looked good last night!

DJariya

Bye Bye Diamond White and CeCe.

I just got caught up with the last 3 weeks of shows. They were eating up so much DVR space that I just had to go through them all tonight (all 9 hours worth....sped up a little with fast forward)

Hated CeCe glad to see her go. Her Katy Perry karaoke performance sucked.

Couldn't really get into Diamond. For me I think her vocals lacked the poise and maturity that Carly Rose has. In my opinion, Carly Rose is the clear cut favorite. She would have tank it big time.

Okay, let me ask you all this question...Does this version of Simon Cowell piss you off? I mean he is so fucking biased towards his team that its so annoying. The constant praise is grating. Someone mentioned it before, but he's totally lost his edge and what made him a fun and entertaining judge.

I don't get the love for Emblem 3. They look and sound like 3 beach bum douche bags trying to do pop. I actually thought their initial audition with their original song was their best performance. Simon has geared them in the wrong direction. I think Rock with some rap and ska would have been better suited for them.

I will say this that Fifth Harmony has improved in the last 2 weeks.

Nice to see Melanie Amaro perform. She looked really good and the song was catchy. But, can she release her fucking album already? I think her label has mismanaged the album. It should have been released no later than 6 months after the show.