‘The X Factor’ USA results: Josh Levi, Rion Paige, Lillie McCloud, Restless Road, and insanity

Thanksgiving is a time to appreciate what you have in your life … but we cannot really say that we’re feeling too much love “The X Factor” USA right now. The results show that we saw on Thursday night was, to put it lightly, complete insanity. There wasn’t much that made sense here at all, from the first elimination to everything that happened the rest of the way.

Let’s just remind you here first of all that Jeff Gutt and Restless Road have never been in the bottom two. Then, we’ll also tell you that Lillie McCloud was sent home automatically at the start of the show, despite getting a standing ovation for “Summertime” the night before. We knew that she was probably not going to win this competition given that the vast majority of her performances would not connect with young people, but she was clearly in the top half of last night.

From here, we have stunner #2: Rion Paige and Josh Levi forced into a sing-off. The former probably deserved to be there based on last night, but it was still a surprise given that this was not a place that she was particularly familiar with before that time. Then, you have a young guy in Josh who has improved by leaps and bounds since returning to the show, and by our estimation, he’s the best solo artist in the entire contest.

Rion Paige – Why is she not performing a country song here? It’s a good performance, but the problem is that no one has given Rion the advice she really needs if she wants to improve in the long-term: She needs to not let her passion become a crutch for her. We know that she can sing, but as she gets excited and worked-up, that becomes the focus for some reason.

Josh Levi (who Paulina Rubio hilariously referred to as Carlito Olivero) – He does need to work on not becoming just a Bruno Mars tribute, but this was the better performance of the two vocally. The issue that Josh runs into is that he has been eliminated in the competition before.

When it comes to the judges, it was a deadlock … which was something that we understood, given that Simon Cowell wanted to let America figure this one out. But sending home Josh? Now two of the best four singers from last night are gone, and we’re left with a very flawed group that feels like Alex & Sierra are at the top, and then there’s everyone else. And to think that this happened on Thanksgiving, no less. Grade: D-.

If you do want to read some more “X Factor” news, just be sure to click here to read our full review of the initial performance show.

Photo: Fox