Blog Posts by Lyndsey Parker

Tuesday night on "The X Factor," the top 17 became the top 12. And it is a very strong top 12. While certain contestants are early frontrunners--either based on strong first auditions, a disproportionate amount of screentime, or excellent performances this week on the first live show--really, almost all of them have a decent chance of winning this thing. It will certainly be interesting to see how it all pans out.

Backstage after Tuesday's big broadcast, I got the chance to talk with the Girls, all of whom seemed poised to be America's new sweethearts. See Rachel Crow discuss running for President and being the youngest solo singer in this game; Melanie Amaro talk about her second chance on the show and why she got so emotional onstage; and Drew Ryniewicz talk about Simon's high praise and whether she's been in communication with her idol, Justin Bieber:

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Backstage with the Over-30's

Backstage with the Boys

Backstage with the Groups

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Tuesday night on "The X Factor," the top 17 became the top 12. And it is a very strong top 12. While certain contestants are early frontrunners--either based on strong first auditions, a disproportionate amount of screentime, or excellent performances this week on the first live show--really, almost all of them have a decent chance of winning this thing. It will certainly be interesting to see how it all pans out.

Backstage after Tuesday's big broadcast, I got the chance to talk with the Boys, one of the stronger categories on the show (L.A. Reid chose well). Click below to see Astro explain where his superhuman confidence comes from, how it feels to be the first MC (not rapper) on a reality singing show, and why people need to stop looking at his mom; Marcus Canty talk about his own mom's two-year deadline and what went through his head when he found out he'd have to cover a Boy George song; and Chris Rene discuss his recovery and if he feels like he's a role model for others

Tuesday night on "The X Factor," the top 17 became the top 12. And it is a very strong top 12. While certain contestants are early frontrunners--either based on memorable first auditions, a disproportionate amount of screentime, or excellent performances this week on the first live show--really, almost all of them seem to have a decent chance of winning this thing. It will be fascinating to see how this all pans out.

Backstage after Tuesday's big broadcast, I got the chance to talk with the contestants from arguably the strongest group on the show: Nicole Scherzinger's over-30's. And their age and experience made for some very interesting interviews.

See Stacy Francis discuss her professional past, her beef with Simon Cowell, and why she's not a "church singer"; Josh Krajcik talk burritos, dive bars, how it feels to scare Simon, and why he doesn't care about being "cool"; and LeRoy Bell reveal his anti-aging secrets, in the video below! 

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Backstage with the Boys

Backstage with

This week it was announced that, in an unprecedented and rather genius move, "The X Factor" will host online voting on Twitter. Which begs the question....why is Simon Cowell not on Twitter yet? With Charlie Sheen and Kanye West even signed up, and fellow L.A. Reid recently coming on board, Simon seems like the lone holdout. And we all know if he got on Twitter, he'd probably accrue a million followers in, like, a day.

"I can't type fast enough. Even when I text, I'm still using two fingers...I need to learn how to type like I talk, otherwise it doesn't sound like me," Simon explained to me at Tuesday night's first live "X Factor" show.

So, if Simon were on Twitter, and if he'd been live-tweeting Tuesday night, what sort of random thoughts would have made it out of his flat-topped head and onto his TweetDeck? That's what I asked Simon backstage, and among his sample suggested "tweets" were:

"L.A.'s uncomfortable"

"I want to go have and a cigarette"

"I wish my girls were coming on

Last night, "The X Factor" aired its marathon-length first live episode, on which the 17 semifinalists were whittled down to the top 12 via a process of highly predictable elimination. My Yahoo! colleague Matt Whitfield and I had in fact already correctly guessed which five contestants would get the axe, and our suspicion is the judges already had their minds made up too, before any of the 17 singers sang a single note. This might explain some of the judges' irksome song selections--which inevitably set up fodder contestants like Phillip Lomax and Dexter Haygood for failure and a swift 'n' easy exit.

But that doesn't mean last night's show was totally drama-free. The judges were at each other's HD-powdered throats (whether this was staged or not, it made for some awesome television), and there were both trainwrecky and triumphant performances for everyone's viewing delight. But Matt and I were actually glad that there were no real "shockers" last night. This meant the

The bad news for Crystal Bowersox fans this week is she just parted ways with her BMG-affiliated record label, Jive, following her Season 9 "Idol" castmate Lee DeWyze's exit from BMG's RCA Records earlier this month. The good news? This same week, she launched her acting career, with a dramatic performance on ABC's "Body Of Proof." And for a first time out, she did a very impressive job.

On the episode, which aired Tuesday night, Crystal played murder suspect and single mom Zoe Brant; the bad-girl-with-a-heart-of-gold role seemed tailor-made for Bowersox, who has overcome plenty of adversity in her own personal life. "She's a bad girl with a good heart, kind of like me" is how Crystal described the Zoe character in a recent TV Line interview. "I'm more of a good girl now with a good heart, but I used to be [like Zoe], though I don't know what it's like to be incarcerated at all. I know nothing about it. My juvenile record is sealed, so it's all good."

Check out Crystal's "Body Of

Simone Battle was eliminated on "The X Factor" this week, and rightfully so. But Battle went out with guns blazing, using her post-elimination speech to boldly pimp her new video, "He Likes Boys." And before "The X Factor's" live top 17 episode had even finished airing on the West Coast, lo and behold...her video was up on YouTube. You gotta give Simone credit: She may not have been the best "X" contestant this year, but she lives up to her surname. The girl's a fighter.

Truth be told, "He Likes Boys" is better than anything Simone ever did on "The X Factor." A modern-day anthem for any girl whose gaydar went on the fritz, causing her to cluelessly fall in love with the wrong man, the song is cute and plays to her obvious fanbase. It also has a happy ending, since Simone winds up with a new best friend instead of a boyfriend and is all the better off for it.

Yes, for the first time, Simone actually seems likable and relatable. If only she'd sang this song Tuesday night instead of her

"The X Factor" aired its first live show Tuesday night, and once again it was a production to match Simon Cowell's supersized ego. The stage was seemingly the size of an airplane hangar; the ginormous screen that ran bio clips of the contestants looked like it belonged in an IMAX theater; and the episode was an unprecedented two-and-a-half hours long, with the Fox network actually preempting its nightly news for the first time in, um, ever to make room for the extendo-broadcast. I guess this was Simon's revenge for that baseball game that infuriatingly preempted "The X Factor" a couple weeks ago.

But the one thing that WASN'T big about Tuesday's "X Factor" show? The surprises. Oh sure, there were definitely some surprising song choices, most of them from the '80s, and Paula Abdul's thigh-high Pretty Woman boots were a little bit shocking. But when it came time for the judges to pick which five of the remaining 17 contestants to eliminate, they went with the obvious--and, let's be