Exclusive: Paige Thomas talks about her time on 'The X Factor' (Part 1)

Paige Thomas was ousted from The X Factor Thursday night after the show's co-hosts Khloe Kardashian and Mario Lopez revealed she was at the bottom of the leaderboard based on home viewer votes cast immediately following Wednesday night's Top 8 performance show.


Paige, a 22-year-old from San Antonio, TX, was automatically eliminated without any discussion or voting from The X Factor judges after the singer was declared the eighth-place act with the least amount of votes. Paige was in judge Demi Lovato's "Young Adults" category. 

In an exclusive interview on Friday, Paige talked to Reality TV World about her The X Factor experience.

Below is the initial portion of Paige's interview. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion.

Reality TV World: Were you surprised to be eliminated, especially since you got the best reviews yet this season from the judges on Wednesday night's performance show? I'm just assuming you probably didn't see that coming at all.


Paige Thomas: You know, at this point in the competition, everyone's so good. So I never expected anything. But yeah, I was definitely shocked for sure.

Reality TV World: Where had you expected to fall in the rankings chart? Did you think, based upon your great performance this week, that you'd make it in the Top 3 or something?

Paige Thomas: Based off of what people around me and backstage and stuff like that were saying, they're saying like that I was in their Top 3 performance of the night. But I don't know. I don't think I really expected to fall in any certain place in particular on the chart. I just didn't necessarily expect to be the lowest either with the lowest amount of votes.

So, I don't know. I think my performance was better than what I placed. I just think I placed that way because ultimately it depends on the votes he got. It wasn't really on how good your performance was but rather just how many votes.

Reality TV World: In your final words following your elimination, you said you're excited to go home and show everyone that you've got bigger and better things to do. Could you talk a little bit about what you meant by that?


Paige Thomas: Yeah, there is so much more to me that I have to offer than what I've been able to showcase on the show such as I'm going to get back into modeling, acting -- experiment there a little bit more -- and then going back to working on my music and stuff rather than covering someone else's music. I get to do my own.

So now, I can work myself without having any limits. No one can tell me I can't have dancers or I need to wear this or so on and so forth. I can just kind of do myself and then run with that.

Reality TV World: So did you just sort of see The X Factor as a stepping stone for you? How much did winning the competition really mean to you?

Paige Thomas: Oh it meant absolutely everything, you know? That was my main goal, and I actually saw myself having the potential to win it. But yeah, I mean, like I said earlier, it comes down to the vote. So it meant everything, and that was my main goal, to win it.

But because I was eliminated at eighth place, it's now a stepping stone. Like I said, there is so much more for me to offer than what I was able to showcase with the show. So, I guess I see it as a stepping stone, absolutely.


Reality TV World: You didn't get very emotional once you were eliminated, which was a little surprising for some viewers considering you seemed to wear your heart on your sleeve all season. So what was going through your mind in the moment? Were you almost a little relieved to leave the competition or were you maybe more frustrated than sad about going home at that point?

Paige Thomas: Um, you know, it's bittersweet, because no one wants to get eliminated in the competition. But yeah, I was a little relieved -- just a little bit -- because I can do what I wanted to do now. I can really come out as to who I am.

This past week, we did -- that whole thing was about how I wanted to come out as myself and I was being kind of somewhat held back a little bit. And I didn't really necessarily see the direction of myself as an artist the way that my mentor did. So, that part was kind of -- that's why the relief came in -- knowing that I had the opportunity to just show who I am as an artist without any limitations or whatever the case may be. 

Above is the initial portion of Paige's interview. Check back with Reality TV World soon for the concluding portion.






About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski