‘The X Factor’ USA review: Tate Stevens, CeCe Frey steal attention at tough bootcamp

Remember when Simon Cowell tried to say that “The Voice” was terrible show with no originality? Well, let’s just say that we pretty much saw the battle rounds here except without the annoying lack of criticism from Cee Lo Green and the coaches. Most of the comments from Simon Cowell and company here were on point, and they were also thankfully succinct.

As per usual when we review these sorts of episodes, we’re only going to focus on the people who received more than just a few seconds of airtime.

Jennel Garcia vs. Tara Simon – We have finally found out what is Jennel’s kryptonite: women who are even more confident than she is. Tara overtook this performance of “Landslide,” but not really for the best reasons. We’ve seen both of them so much better than they were here.

Beatrice Miller vs. Carly Rose Soneclair – Carly is a superstar for this show, and she’s going to be around for a while; it’s no slam against Beatrice, but she really just faded away during this performance.

David Correy vs. Vino Allen – We’ve touted David as a favorite here for some time, but what was strange here was that his casual, cool demeanor was overshadowed by Vino freaking out after the performance of “What’s Going On?” for no good reason.

Dinah Jane Hansen vs. Diamond White – This was really pretty similar to Beatrice and Carly Rose, mostly because it was pretty clear that Diamond won here.

Willie Jones vs. Tate Stevens – Tate not only stole this battle with his rendition of “Nobody Knows,” but this may have been one of the best vocals of the entire season. It was subtle but also moving, and we don’t care about the claims that he “hustled” Willie by picking a song that he knew better than he did. Willie still should have known the song.

CeCe Frey vs. Paige Thomas – We understand way Paige was upset about a song that wasn’t really her choice in “Secrets,” but the sign of a true star is how you handle the adversity. Her performance was really okay more than great; meanwhile, CeCe rocked this save for doing a little too much at the end.

Next week, we will have the actual results … so stay tuned!

What was your favorite part of this episode, and who do you think rose their stock the most during the episode?  Be sure to share some of your thoughts below.