TV: The X Factor USA w/e 26.11.11

Written by: Sion Smith

Josh Krajcik tears the house down with Wild Horses

America, America, America… this week you have let me down. 

This week, our intrepid contestants were required to deliver songs of thanks to their loved ones. What with it being Thanksgiving and everything, why the hell not – but am I the only one watching the show in the UK or the US that didn’t recognise more than half of the songs this week. I mean, I’m pretty well-versed in music but some of the song choices were diabolical.

As with the show on both sides of the Atlantic, it’s not much of a singing competition until you get down to the last four. It’s an out and out popularity contest. It’s never been more obvious in the US than it was this week though. Let me get this straight – you chose to send Leroy home and keep Astro? You sent home Lakoda Rain and kept Gospel Boy? Man, what’s the world coming to.

Astro The X Factor

Just a pair of glasses stand between the forces of evil and Gospel Boy's secret identity

While it’s been a nice touch and fun for a few weeks, it’s now time for the children on this show to go home. Shouldn’t they be in bed or something anyway? They also need to step up security in the backstage area. What the hell was Melanie on this week? Watching her after-song jibber-jabber, I’m pretty sure she’d been hitting the old MDMA a little too hard there. Scary.

I was about to write the whole show off as a forgettable week without incident… and then my man, the Joshter hit the stage. Holy shit. I’m in the house by myself and I’m sitting on the edge of the sofa with a tears rolling down my face like a little girl as he pounded a piano through the Stones’ Wild Horses. If you missed it, some nice people have dropped it on the Tube for you here:

Kelly Clarkson was in the house this week too, performing Stronger… I adore Kelly and her new album is spectacular, but compared to Josh this week, everybody is standing in the shadow and will be for some time to come.

Footnote: if you want to see what somebody tripping on ecstasy looks like, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jENnBZ11yg and watch from 5:10 to the end. Nicole is as bad as she is. Weird.

Author: Sion Smith

My name is Sion Smith. I write about rock music, books and pop-culture – kind of like a rock n roll Nick Hornby or maybe Hank Moody with hair. Sion is pronounced as in Sean Connery/Shawn Michaels – take your pick. If you’re interested, it’s Welsh. I'm also the editor of Skin Deep, the biggest selling tattoo magazine in the UK and harbour designs on writing for Doctor Who – these two things are not related. Aside from that, I’m currently working on a TV screenplay called Fox On The Run and also contribute articles to The Void - which you know already because you're here. You can jump on the feed of my own blog at sionsmith.co.uk.

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Responses to TV: The X Factor USA w/e 26.11.11

  1. chickcNo Gravatar November 27th, 2011

    You summed it up perfectly. This competition belongs to Josh, period.

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