Kelly Clarkson appears on stage within a record 1 minute of the show commencing. Wonderful. Not just a good new track but no long-winded intro or back stories or giving thanks. Uh oh... I spoke too soon. we then get mercifully short extracts from the night before. Plus a few performances but not a great deal in the fastest summary put together, presumably, on the morning after the night before. I can only imagine that the lower ratings they've been getting may have meant less ads so less time.
Steve does a lot with his finger. Each time the word one happens to arrive in a sentence up comes the single finger. No not the middle one. At the very start he gave a great victory sign to the camera to emphasise the fact that two acts are leaving tonight. That could have gone wrong. Then we get the finger swipe which is a slightly stiff and cardboard version of the Dermot O'Leary twist and slice we here in the UK are so familiar with that we'd probably have to check the channel if he didn't do it when introducing something.
We're Gonna Start A Fight sing the last nine. A bit odd and only Melanie and Rachel really seem to make much of an impression. That's all probably best forgotten.
Drew and Lakoda Rayne get dragged up onto the stage and one of them is the act with the lowest votes. It didn't take much guessing that Drew was safely through and it was farewell to Lakoda Rayne and Paula loses her last group. So X Factor USA will be creating a new solo star in a few weeks' time like American Idol has done and, indeed, as X Factor UK has been doing for many years.
Lakoda Rayne determinedly announce that it's not 'the end' and that they'll be carrying on together. That's good, although I am not going to predict that we'll see much of them in the UK unless Paula finds them a really good writer. There is space for a new girl band but they'll need more than covers to break through.
Bruno Mars puts on an excellent performance which Marcus would do well to try and emulate if he wishes to carry on as that's where it's at amongst the major section of the 2011-2 buying public.
Now we get to find out the second act to leave. It really should be Chris. But he's actually the next name called out so it's not him. Goodness knows how he's surviving. I suppose he is the last good looking(ish) guy left and gets the girls' vote. Rachel gets through, Josh and Melanie deservedly too. Marcus, Leroy or Astro? Which will be the bottom two? It's Leroy and Marcus as Astro is through!
It looks as though Marcus is paying the price for that really rubbish performance of Mama or whatever it was called last night. Well done, America, for getting that right. I suspect that SYCO decided to hang on to Astro after last week's farce and Leroy may well have been the lowest had he not produced a damn good vocal which appealed to just a few more than Lakoda Rayne effort.
You'd expect that the inevitable outcome would be for Leroy to bid farewell to the competition now. Marcus should be able to come out with a great track to show off what he is capable of doing while Leroy can only hope to impress with another well-sung but not terribly inspiring or different version of a ballad.
In fact Marcus does a ballad first, pretty well delivered but he looks uncomfortable and misses a lot of notes but it's an appealing track. Neglected ought to save him but let's see what Leroy pulls out of the same bag. We know he'll hit the notes but will he deliver the real pzazz that's needed? Don't Let Me Down is not easy - another McCartney track with notes in strange places that most people in this competition would never get right. Remarkably, Leroy not only does get almost all of them right but switches the impact of the song well and, to my mind, gives a far better performance than Marcus. That was good. A tough choice for the judges, for sure. They'd normally have decided straight for Marcus but I'm not so sure they will this time. the problem for Leroy is that he is almost certainly the second lowest on the phone votes and so deadlock would see him going home. So he needs three of the judges.
Obviously, he doesn't get LA Reid. LA does actually give a very sensible and logical reason too, not just 'cos he's his mentor. Nicole, again, supporting her act, backs Leroy. One all. Paula sends home Marcus! That took a lot of courage. Simon, I feel, prefers Leroy but decides to go for deadlock. Bad news for Leroy. Very unlucky.
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