The X Factor USA - Auditions #6 - Recap and Live Blog - 09/26/2013
Welcome to the live blog and recap of The X Factor USA "Auditions #6" for September 26, 2013!
The auditions come to a close as the judges assemble their top 40, with ten acts per category! Who will make the cut? And which acts will be sent home?
Credit: FOX
8:00 PM
-We open with a recap of the auditions so far, and it's kind of staggering to see how few genuinely knock-out talent they've found so far. Don't get me wrong, the good ones they've found are generally really good, but man, they sure put through a lot of so-so acts. Then again, I thought season 8 of American Idol had a so-so field during auditions, and it ended up being my single favorite season of any reality singing competition ever, so it wouldn't surprise me if this season were to make a dramatic turnaround.
NEAL MACOMBER, 45, is up first!
-Ugh...how many nights are we going to start with a joke act? Man alive, it's like they're begging people to change the channel in unison.
-The audition is amusing enough to start, as Simon asks Neal if he's married, to which Neal responds he hasn't found the right girl yet. Simon feels the same way, but Mario breaks in with a voice over to announce that since this was recorded, Simon found the right girl. Speaking of which, where IS Mario anyway? In other X Factors, the host is a very prominent part of the audition process. It's peculiar not to have anyone here, as peculiar as it was last season.
-Neal sings "Everybody Talks" by Neon Trees, and it's predictably awful, with Neal flirting with Demi creepily.
-Simon compares Neal to a killer from a slasher movie, with Demi agreeing about how creepy it was. Paulina likes Neal, but it's still a no. Kelly adds her voice to the chorus, and it's four No's for Neal. Hopefully, we can get to the talent now.
Back from break with a trio of 12-13 year olds called Glamour. Their harmonies are incredibly tight, although they pander a bit by singing the National Anthem as their audition. But they're responsible for the "baby Destiny's Child" line that we've seen from Kelly ad nauseum the last several weeks.
-We then get another group of girls, a trio called Girls United. They sing "Price Tag," and while it's not as vocally impressive as Glamour's audition, it was still pretty good.
-Then, in rapid succession, we get auditions from Zach Beeken (a 17-year-old country singer with a really deep voice), Wild Thingz (a rap duo consisting of a 22-year-old and a 30-year-old), and Denny Smith (a 69-year-old pastor), all of whom advance to the next round. You know, because this show apparently isn't about showcasing the talented people at length.
GLAMOUR, GIRLS UNITED, ZACH BEEKEN, WILD THINGZ, and DENNY SMITH advance to the next round!
-We then meet our next contestant, a woman who has had eight children yet still looks pretty damn amazing. She's doing it for her kids, naturally, and tears up in talking about them. She seems super-sweet. Let's see if the voice matches up...
VICTORIA CARRIGER, 41, is up next!
-Victoria sings "Because of You" by Kelly Clarkson, and it starts out pretty rough, but she grows more and more confident as the song goes on. By the end of it, it's one of my favorite auditions of the entire week. The audience is on their feet, and her family is ecstatic backstage.
-Simon says he had written Victoria off before she even started singing (glad to know he's in charge of picking talent, then), but she completely surprised him. He thought the audition was "extraordinary."
-Paulina says she could feel Victoria's pain, as well as her love for her family.
-Demi echoes Paulina's sentiments, saying she could also feel the pain, and that she's rooting for her. Kelly just wants to vote, and kicks it off by saying "Yes." The other three judges follow suit.
VICTORIA CARRIGER advances to the next round!
-Victoria's kids rush out onstage to celebrate. She cries and says that what means the most is that her kids are proud of her.
8:25 PM
-Back from break with a familiar face from Simon's past...
KEITH BEUKELAER, 29, is up next!
-This is the "Like A Virgin" guy from Season 2 of American Idol, and he expresses nervousness about auditioning in front of Simon again after ten years.
-Simon "recognizes" him immediately (likely because the call sheet on the desk in front of him says "Like A Virgin Guy from American Idol"), and he even wishes Keith luck on his audition.
-Keith raps "Baby Got Back," and the crowd is really into it, as are the female judges, even going so far as to pull Simon out of his chair to dance. Keith, meanwhile, is shaking his ass onstage in his head-to-toe tie-dyed outfit and feather boa. Simon says the girls have all gone crazy.
-Demi says yes, and then we move on t---wait WHAT?! YES?!
-Paulina says YES too! You're kidding me, right?
-Kelly says yes, and that sound is my rage at putting Keith through to the next round while Second Hand High sits at home ("Ask Me to Dance" is a masterpiece, dammit!)
-And then Simon, perhaps tripping balls on some kind of contact high, says yes. Of all the people to get four yeses...
KEITH BEUKELAER advances to the next round!
-And with that, auditions have mercifully come to an end.
8:34 PM
-Back from break with Mario announcing that all 200+ acts have been brought out to LA's Shrine Auditorium. Simon announces that Boot Camp is no more, with only ten acts from each category being put through. He withholds telling them about the Four Chair Challenge though, reserving that little tidbit for the Top 40 who make it through.
-The judges begin their deliberations. It's peculiar that they aren't asking these people to perform again, and are instead going off of video of their audition. I mean, really, no new performances? No new auditions? The people who only barely got through don't get a chance to show another side to prove the judge(s) who voted against them wrong? It's a completely back-asswards way of doing things, particularly if the goal is to find the next big star. I doubt the boys in One Direction came into the competition fully formed and ready to go before they even got to Boot Camp.
-We see the judges poring over tapes of Rion Paige, Tim Olstad, Lillie McCloud, Jeff Gutt, and Wild Thingz, and Alex & Sierra,
among others. We get the usual misdirection where we're led to believe the judges are talking about one contestant when they're likely talking about someone else entirely. Ultimately, the judges settle on their Top 40 while the nervous contestants wait in the holding room, some of whom will have been flown out to LA only to be sent home without singing a single note.
8:43 PM
-Back from break with the girls learning their fate. The top 10 girls are...
GIRLS: Khaya Cohen, Bree Randall, Jamie Pineda, Simon Torres, Rion Paige, Danielle Geimer, Rylie Brown, Primrose Martin, Ellona Santiago and Ashly Williams.
-Now it's time for the boys to find out their fate. The top 10 boys are...
BOYS: Carlite Olivero, Chase Goehring, Timmy Thames, Isaiah Alston, Tim Olstad, Al Calderon, Josh Levi, Isaac Tauaefa, Carlos Guevara, and Stone Martin.
Next are the groups....
GROUPS: Glamour, Good News, Yellow House Canyon, Alex & Sierra, Roxxy Montana, Wild Thingz, and Girls United.
Lastly, it's the Over 25s...
OVER 25s: Lillie McCloud, Jeff Brinkman, Rachel Potter, Kristine Mirelle, Victoria Carriger, James Kenney, Allison Davis, Denny Smith, Lorie Moore, and Jeff Gutt.
And now, we get the formation of new groups, all of which are trios. Unfortunately, they don't tell us who any of these people are. But the trios are an all-male country group, a boy band, and a girl group. I'll get on finding out who's who during the break...
[UPDATE: So after a cursory online search, it turns out the created groups consist of...MALE COUNTRY GROUP: Andrew Scholz, Colton Pack and Zach Beeken, GIRL GROUP: Celine Polenghi, Millie Thrasher, and Summer Reign, and BOY BAND: Emery Kelly plus a duo that probably auditioned as a Brewer Boys tribute act]
8:55 PM
-Back with the reveal of which judge has which category. Demi wants the girls, Kelly wants the overs, Paulina wants the groups, and Simon wants the guys, meaning nobody is going to get what they want...
-Kelly has THE OVER 25s (okay, I'll stop predicting things now)
-Demi has THE GIRLS (yeah, I'm seriously going to stop predicting things)
-Paulina has THE BOYS (the Latin singers in the group are stoked, of course)
-Simon has THE GROUPS (again?! Well, okay)
And so we close with a preview of the Four Chair Challenge, and the crowd absolutely losing their minds after one of the judges makes an incredibly controversial cut. Looks like they're going to make it three seasons in a row where they bring someone back because "OMG WE MADE A MISTAKE, YOU GUYS!" That said, I am interested by this whole Four Chair dealie. Count me in.