‘The X Factor’ USA notes: Carly Rose Sonenclar, Britney Spears, Emblem3

We have some coverage coming up from “The X Factor” USA very soon, but let’s start things off by finally confirming something that we brought up yesterday: Emblem3 officially getting a record deal. We’ve been saying for some time now that this was going to more or less be a done deal, and now we have confirmation that there will be an album coming up in the future.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the trio of guys (Wesley Stromberg, Keaton Stromberg, and Drew Chadwick) have all signed with Syco Music via Columbia Records (the same label as One Direction), and are going to be working with executive producer Savan Kotecha (who has worked with One Direction as well as with Maroon 5) on a debut album. Here is what Kotecha had to ultimately say about this to the website:

“I was so impressed by the talent and energy of the Emblem3 boys that I had to work with them … I’m looking forward to helping them fulfill their creative vision and working with the amazing Syco and Columbia team who, in my opinion, are the best in the business.”

Kotecha worked as a vocal coach for many of the acts throughout season 2 of the show, so he already has some experience going into this of working with them.

Let’s talk TCA – While Carly is not getting the same sort of official announcement right now, she was the target of some rather nice praise at Fox’s TCA panel about the show, where the network’s reality programming chief Mike Darnell praised her as one of the reasons the show worked:

 “I thought the talent was amazing … Carly Rose was one of the best singers we had on any of these shows.”

From here, what was interesting was Darnell’s assessment of the season, where he blamed the show’s declining ratings primarily on the schedule, which included getting railroaded by “The Voice” during its premiere, getting pre-empted multiple times during a single episode for baseball, and having to be off for a couple of weeks thanks to baseball. It’s a lot harder running a singing competition in the fall than it is one in the spring.

As for the future of some of the talent, Darnell and Fox chief Kevin Reilly both seemed to like Britney Spears and think that millions of Americans are still “fascinated” with her; however, the best thing that Darnell would say about Mario Lopez and Khloe Kardashian as hosts were that they were “okay.” Translation? We would be shocked if either is around for another season.

If you want to read some more of the latest “X Factor” news, be sure to head over to the link here.

Photo: Fox