‘The X Factor’ USA notes: Tate Stevens, Carly Rose Sonenclar, Lauren Jauregui

Let’s start this Friday “X Factor” USA notes by laying out the basics of what’s going on in the world of the show leading into season 3: L.A. Reid and Britney Spears are gone, and Simon Cowell is the only personality more or less confirmed to return. We expect that Demi Lovato will be back so long as she’s interested, and we’re doubtful about the return of both Mario Lopez and Khloe Kardashian based on the fact that Fox executives basically graded their performance together as “okay” at the TCA panel earlier this month. (It just doesn’t make sense financially to have two hosts with the show’s ratings, especially two that came across poorly at times.)

On the subjects of record deals, Tate Stevens, Fifth Harmony, and Emblem3 have all scored official contracts following their time on the show, and Carly Rose Sonenclar is still in the running. While there were reports that Carly was going to be signed in late December to Sony Music, it’s better at this point to take a wait-and-see approach than assume anything reported online by anonymous sources (which we’ve heard plenty from, but they can be wrong given that they’re not really putting themselves on the line with their reporting); if she doesn’t end up there, she’ll end up somewhere else. Rest assured that this sort of talent is not going to be forgotten.

Before we get into news on some other singers, here are a pair of ways you can support Carly while you wait: be sure to visit her Soundcloud (which she just updated this week, and it contains some of her best performances from the show), or do what so many other fans are doing in the past 48 hours and nominate her for a Shorty Award. Just for fun, we’ve included our favorite performance of hers from this season in “As Long As You Love Me” below.

Tate wraps his music video – As for some of the more specific news, let’s start things off with the announcement that Tate has finished shooting his new video  “Holler If You’re with Me,” which is going to be played as a commercial during the Grammys next month. For those curious, a fuller version of the clip will be available online after the show.

Tate is still working on the writing process for his debut album, and has worked yet again this week with a personal country music favorite in John Rich … someone who knows a thing or two about hit songs. Given the progress that is being made here, we could see Tate’s debut out as early as the summer or at least in the fall, just in time to promote the music during season 3.

Lauren’s favorite things – As a TV buff, we always appreciate it when singing show contestants have some pretty good taste in entertainment; and thus, we bring to you the impressive list of favorite shows from Lauren Jauregui of Fifth Harmony.

In a post on Twitter, she listed “American Horror Story” (she recently met Evan Peters), “Girls,” “The Vampire Diaries,” “Pretty Little Liars,” “Once Upon a Time,” “Game of Thrones,” and “The Newsroom” as some of her favorites. This is a pretty impressive range of genres, and it also makes us smile to see that we are not the only person out there unafraid to admit our love for Will McAvoy and the ACN team.

Lauren also told Keaton Stromberg of Emblem3 recently that she is going to be back out in Los Angeles “soon,” hopefully to start recording her debut album with her group.

Want some more news on Fifth Harmony, Carly, and even former judge Nicole Scherzinger? If so, be sure to check out the story over here.

Photo: Fox