X Factor USA - Top 7 Results

What goes around, comes around.  To our great amusement, Simon has been positively awful to his fellow judges over the past few weeks, last night (during the Top 7 Tribute to Michael Jackson) even referring to them as “Wiggly, Squiggly and Whatever”.  In tonight’s double elimination, Simon paid the price. Well, not really him, but one of his contestants, anyway.

In the results show, the contestants had to face the aftermath of the disastrous and tasteless Tribute to Michael Jackson.  This time without the Jackson clan.  (They were probably booked for some other tribute somewhere else. And thank goodness for that, because watching that whole family piling onto a dead horse and riding it to market is a disturbing sight.)

Chris Rene, Melanie Amaro and Rachel Crow were quickly sent to safety.  After a guest performance from rapper Tinie Tempah, the fate of the remainder of the top 7 was revealed. With only Josh between her and failure, Nicole leaped for joy when he was also sent to safety, leaving Drew, Marcus Canty and Astro in the bottom three.

In a double elimination the contestant with the lowest number of votes is sent home immediately, without any intervention from the judges.  Astro showed no surprise when his name was called. Once the sensation about his poor behaviour from two weeks ago had blown over, he was safely back where he belonged. At the bottom. He had two weeks to prepare for the moment and took it well.

Drew was inconsolable and not in a position to sing for her life.  She muddled through Roxette’s Listen to Your Heart.  Marcus Canty similarly struggled through One of Us by Gladys Knight but outperformed Drew. And then it was sweet revenge time for the judges.  LA, Nicole and Paula voted against Drew, with Simon jumping out of his seat in disgust and Drew nearly collapsing in sobs.

The rest was pure reality television melodrama.  Simon was livid and with no judges to safely take it out on anymore, poor Steve got the brunt of it, resulting in a visibly rattled Steve almost losing it as well, struggling through the remainder of his lines.  The curtains closed as Drew disappeared into a huddle of sympathetic contestants.