'The X Factor' judges eliminate five acts and determine Top 12 acts

The X Factor eliminated five acts and determined its Top 12 acts during Tuesday night's live broadcast of the new Fox reality singing competition.


After watching each of the competition's 17 remaining acts perform, The X Factor judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, L.A. Reid, and Nicole Scherzinger decided to eliminate Phillip Lomax, The Brewer Boys, Dexter Haygood, Simone Battle, and Tiah Tolliver.

Each judge had the sole responsibility of determining which the remaining acts in their assigned category would be among the three acts that would advance to the competition's Top 12.

Since last week's surprise twist had left Cowell with an additional fifth act, he was required to eliminate two The X Factor acts from his "Girls Under 30" category group while Abdul, Reid and Scherzinger each had to cut one act from their respective "Groups," "Boys Under 30" and "Over 30" four-act squads.

The X Factor's Top 17 live performance show began with the four members of Reid's "Boys Under 30" category -- "Astro" Brian Bradley, Chris Rene, Marcus Canty, and Lomax-- performing and all four judges giving their feedback on the performances.


Reid then decided that Lomax, a 22-year-old from Seattle, WA, would be the "Boys Under 30" act that would not be advancing to The X Factor's cross-category competition phase, which will begin next week and feature the Top 12 acts competing directly against each other for home viewer votes.

"It's such a shame that L.A. sent me home tonight, but I'm just so happy to be here in the first place," Lomax said afterward.

"Thank you for giving me this opportunity, this is what I worked for in my life, and I hope that I'm going to be performing as much as possible in the future."

Abdul's four "Groups" category acts -- The Brewer Boys, InTENsity, Lakoda Rayne, and The Stereo Hogzz -- then performed next and she opted to eliminate The Brewer Boys, a pair of teenage brothers from Temecula, CA.

"We just want to thank the judges.  Thank you so much Miss Paula for everything, we've learned a lot -- you're just awesome," Justin Brewer said after Abdul revealed her decision.


"Thank you so much for this opportunity.  I'm sorry that we didn't live up to your expectations," Nathan added.

The four "Over 30" acts -- Haygood, Josh Krajcik, LeRoy Bell, and Stacy Francis -- were the next category to perform.  Afterward, Scherzinger decided to cut Haygood, a 49-year-old from Memphis, TN who currently resides in Chicago, IL.

"[I'm] kind of confused... [but] I don't know why I'm confused.  Right now I'm in the boggle zone -- that's the 21st century twilight zone," Haygood remarked to The X Factor host Steve Jones.

The five members of Cowell's "Girls Under 30" category -- Drew Ryniewicz, Melanie Amaro, Rachel Crow, Simone Battle, and Tiah Tolliver -- then took the stage and Cowell was forced to decide which two girls he would be cutting.

After revealing that Ryniewicz and Crow would be advancing, Cowell announced that Amaro would be receiving his third and final slot and Battle and Tolliver would be heading home.


"I'm just super-excited to be here and super-excited to have this opportunity to be on this stage and have criticism by you guys," Tolliver, a 20-year-old who currently resides in Bremerton, WA, told the judges afterwards.  "And I'm going to take everything that you guys told me and use it."

"Thank you so much for this amazing platform," added Battle, a 22-year-old from Los Angeles, CA.  "I just want to say I'll be releasing my music video tonight -- 'He Likes Boys' -- my first song."






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