The X Factor launched its Boot Camp phase and narrowed the contestant pool to a hundred hopefuls during Wednesday night's Fox broadcast of the new reality singing competition.

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The X Factor broadcast began with the 162 acts who were selected during the competition's open auditions traveling to Los Angeles.  Once there, they met with The X Factor judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, LA Reid, and Nicole Scherzinger and discovered only a hundred of them would survive the first day of the Boot Camp phase.

"It's called Boot Camp for a reason.  This is going to separate the good people from the not-so-good people, so I wish you the absolute best of luck," Cowell told the hopefuls.

Additional rounds of cuts would then take place in the following days, and The X Factor's Boot Camp phase would conclude with 32 acts being selected and advancing to the next phase in which they would be personally mentored by a judge.

"Every day the judges will cut the numbers until just 32 acts remain -- eight boys, eight girls, eights 'over 30s,' and eight groups," The X Factor host Steve Jones explained.

"Then the four judges will become a mentor to one category each and invite the contestants in the category to their homes, where they'll decide who will make it to the live shows."

After a brief group workshop in which all 162 acts worked with a choreographer and demonstrated their dance skills, they were broken into lines of ten and given the chance to individually perform a previously rehearsed song for the judges.

The judges then decided which acts would not advance to Day 2 and the 162 acts were organized into three groups to learn their fate.

"I'm sorry but we're going to have to send you home," Reid told the group of eliminated acts.

"Thank you everybody," Cowell added.

The remainder of Wednesday night's The X Factor broadcast then featured coverage of Day 2, in which the hundred remaining acts were organized into ensembles and given five hours to work with vocal coaches and choreographers and learn a new song to perform for the judges.

"You guys are going to be put into ensembles -- groups -- [and] you only have a few hours to prepare a song that you may or may not know.  And then you're going to perform for myself and the other judges," Reid told the acts as Day 2 began.

"The good news is you're very, very lucky because you're going to have some of the greatest people in the entertainment industry working with you -- stylists, vocal coaches, choreographers -- the world's finest!  Good luck to you all, but it only gets tougher from here."

Eight ensembles were then shown performing for the judges.  Tonight's The X Factor broadcast will begin with the remaining ensembles performing, after which the judges will cut one third of the acts, and conclude with the competition's Top 32 acts being revealed.
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