Family gatherings, stuffed turkey, cranberry sauce. For “The X Factor,” Thanksgiving is also a time to crush dreams.
On an episode when no family connection failed to be exploited, the oldest contestant on “The X Factor” was eliminated, while the youngest two battled to see which one would stay.
First to go was Lillie McCloud, 54, who had a whole recording career and chart success in a previous life in the late 1980s under the name Nicole. She was dismissed Thursday despite a typically big performance the night before of “Summertime.” Either “X Factor” voters don’t like ringers, are cold to great singers, or hate old people (or possibly, all three).
The sing-off battle was between the next two lowest vote-getters in the top eight — 13-year-old Rion Paige and 15-year-old Josh Levi.
Rion, a sentimental favorite who has a congenital condition that has affected her arms, sang John Anderson’s “Swingin'” Wednesday but went for the power ballad “Perfect” by Pink for her save song. It’s a song whose real title is “F**kin’ Perfect,” which would have sounded funny coming from her, especially since she declared, in her defense, “I’m up here to tell everyone how great the Lord is and how I love to sing!”
Josh had some experience being eliminated from the competition, as Paulina Rubio dismissed him before the Final 12 but was told to bring him back to make a Top 13. He sang Bruno Mars’ “Treasure” Wednesday but was criticized by Simon Cowell for having dated choreography. For his save song, he did some more Bruno Mars, the ballad, “When I Was Your Man.”
With the decision left to the judges, you could almost see their holiday meals churning inside of them.
“I hate that we’re having to do this on Thanksgiving,” said Demi Lovato.
“This is not cool for Thanksgiving,” Paulina Rubio said.
“Crap,” said Simon Cowell.
In the end, because the stern Mario Lopez demanded they come up with a decision, Paulina went with her guy, Demi went with her girl, Kelly Rowland said Rion should go and Simon said Josh, knowing it would revert to a tiebreaker, so that whoever had the lowest votes between them would be eliminated (maybe they should have started with this).
It was Josh. And despite a lot of encouraging words, he was gone — maybe even for good this time.
And while each mentor went into the show tied with two acts each, Rowland is left with just one in rocker Jeff Gutt. Rubio also has just one act left, Carlito Olivero, who everybody thought would go home way before this (and who Paulina mistakenly introduced for the save song).
Lovato, who was one of the two performers of the night (along with Michael Buble), still has two left in her category of girls, Ellona Santiago and Rion.
Cowell also has two acts: the countrified boy band Restless Road as well as the lovable couple Alex & Sierra, who were even more lovable this week as it seemed they were the only ones who didn’t have family flown in for Thanksgiving dinner and commercial exploitation in a car-sponsored bit that had everyone at the table doing a toast: “Thank You (Car Sponsor)!”
Next week, the top six will sing two songs — one from their “favorite diva artist,” and the other a stripped-down song of their choice. But who knows that that will mean? This week, after all, was “big band” week, which didn’t mean Glenn Miller or the Dorsey Brothers but just about anything, including songs from Ricky Martin and Taylor Swift to Jessie J, with a group song Thursday from that big band favorite, Keane.