No more highway work for Tate Stevens, the country singer who won the second season of “The X Factor” Thursday.It couldn’t have been too much of a surprise, as Stevens had finished first place for four of the show’s eight weeks — twice as often as his nearest competitor, 13-year-old Carly Rose Sonenclare, who finished second Thursday.
Fifth Harmony, the girl group put together by Simon Cowell from individual hopefuls, came in third. It was essentially the same win, place and show for the three as last week.
For L.A. Reid, the judge who mentored Stevens, it was a win to crown his two seasons on the show; he announced earlier that he would be leaving “The X Factor.”
The $5 million recording contract for Stevens may be the richest prize in TV, but it won’t seem much if his recordings don’t sell. Country singers have been increasingly popular on the singing competitions that usually tilted toward more soulful stars, and they’ve scored some recording stars from Carrie Underwood to Scotty McCreery, to name two “American Idol” winners.
Stevens, at 37, is the oldest winner of a U.S. reality show singing competition. The real name of the native of Belton, Mo., is Stephen Eatinger.
The announcement came at the end of a bloated, not very entertaining two hour finale in which the final three each sang a Christmas song with the show’s usual fussy production, and there were all manner of amateurish technical problems the the beginning of the show, in which the cast enters on a fake red carpet before fake paparazzi. Guest stars included Pitbull and the one act who has shown that success can come from the “X Factor,” UK winners OneDirection, put together by Cowell there.
Last year’s U.S. “X Factor” winner was Melanie Amaro, who has been unsuccessful in charting any of her subsequent singles.