‘The X Factor’ USA results: One Direction performs; did Tim Olstad, Khaya Cohen stay alive?

“The X Factor” USA may have just been a One Direction concert tonight, given the amount of hype that the British boyband received tonight for what was a big performance for all of the teenage girls in the audience. They performed “Story of My Life,” and then all of the teenagers in the audience had to deal with the rest of the show.

We say this mostly because America of course eliminated Khaya Cohen, who was one of the few contestants who had a real interesting voice with character and style. The problem is that the editors never really allowed viewers to try to care about her, so of course nobody gave her the time of day in the voting. She never really gave a bad performance, though, in the live rounds, while we had a few other singers with consistent duds. Heck, some of them are still in the competition for whatever reason.

But when it comes to the bottom two, the voters at least got it right based on what we saw last night … but there were a few surprises to be found in here.

Tim Olstad, “You Raise Me Up” – Wait, where was this Tim? He may not be the most charismatic guy in the world, but this was the first time all season that we genuinely believed him. He was really great in this, and there was a little bit of stage presence! Plus, Paulina Rubio actually was a little teary-eyed at the end of this.

Carlito Olivero, “Beneath Your Beautiful” – This is the second time in three days we have heard this song, as Matthew Schuler on “The Voice” actually performed it (albeit better). Carlito gave a robust performance still; we didn’t really like some of the faces during it, though, or him basically singing the “take it off now, girl” lines to Demi Lovato. Really? Kind of a little bit of a d-bag move.

We actually would’ve chose to save Tim just because we found Carlito’s performance to be a little creepy, but we figured going in that Tim was destined to leave, given that Simon has basically wanted to see him gone for weeks now. The moment that Demi and Kelly Rowland both voted to send home Tim, it was over … but then for whatever reason Paulina took forever and almost looked at the audience like it was a game on “The Price Is Right.” Simon didn’t even need t vote. It was a surprise that Paulina actually voted to send home one of her acts, given that often we see judges in this position abstain from the vote.

Did the right person leave “The X Factor” tonight? Share your thoughts below, and click here to take a look at our review for last night’s performance show.

Photo: Fox