‘The X Factor’ USA: Vino Alan, Paige Thomas react to eliminations

If you were to judge this week’s “The X Factor” USA based strictly on performances, then there a couple of obvious choices as to who would go home; however, the people we ended up seeing leave instead were Paige Thomas and Vino Alan. At least in the case of the former, we had a singer who had been in the bottom before and did not seem long for the competition; as for the latter, let’s just say that Vino’s exit was largely stunning in that he had never even remotely been in a position of jeopardy before.

Backstage at the show, Paige specifically gave E! News a little bit more context when it came to some of her struggles in song choice with the producers as well as her mentor Demi Lovato:

“There were a few things that [were] kind of a struggle. I was trying to tell my mentor that I really didn’t see it this way, so now I can just go ten-fold on who I really see myself as an artist. This has opened so many doors for me, and I’m so excited. I got the exposure that I wanted, and I walked out of this competition being myself, so I can honestly say that I’m going home happy.”

Here’s what we don’t get completely when it comes to Paige. Demi was hardly the best mentor ever at times during the competition; however, she also is an artist with a #1 hit under her belt in “Give Your Heart a Break,” and we’re not quire sure that Paige really is giving her enough credit.

On a little bit of a different note, Vino actually has L.A. Reid almost entirely to blame for his elimination, as he saddled him with a song choice that he not only did not want, but he openly resisted. However, the show’s oldest contestant told Zap2It after the show that he was not too angry with the Epic Records mogul, mostly since he had his best intentions at heart:

“I don’t blame L.A. … I blame myself for not standing up. That’s the advice I’d give to anybody: follow your gut.”

If you want to take another look at Thursday night’s results show, you can do so over here.

Photo: Fox