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

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

Monday night on "The Sing-Off," the show attempted to pair arguably the geekiest genre in music, a cappella, with the swaggiest, hip-hop. Judge Shawn Stockman actually pointed out that "The Sing-Off" is the first talent show in prime-time television to dedicate an entire episode to hip-hop, which is kind of sad if you think about it. But, in less-sad news, this pairing pretty much worked, surprisingly.

Yes, it was corny (especially when Shawn's fellow judge Ben Folds rap-battled with host Nick Lachey, somewhat adorably). And nothing the eight remaining teams performed was as awesome as Urban Method's cover of Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison" from last week. (I am now rallying for a New Jack Swing night on "The Sing-Off." Come on, Shawn, make it happen!) But there were a few moments when the crews got a little crunk, and it was fun...in a rap-that-won't-scare-your-grandma sort of way.

BRACKET 1

Dartmouth Aires - The Aires are definitely one of the most fun, party-hardy teams on this show,

If there was ever convincing evidence that music can keep you young, it's the living, breathing case of LeRoy Bell--who at age 60 (yes, SIXTY) is "The X Factor's" oldest contestant, but who incredibly almost looks like he belongs in L.A. Reid's "boys" categories, not the "over-30's" group. He's basically the Dorian Gray of reality TV. 

In an ageist business like pop music, LeRoy naturally has no reason to lie about his age, if he is younger than 60--in fact, last week, he actually admitted he was still pretending to be in his forties, until this show "outed" him, so to speak. But some viewers have still (somewhat understandably) accused the ageless wonder of being much, much younger than he claims. So LeRoy now has an Obama-like plan to clear that up.

"Lately there's been a lot of talk about my age," LeRoy says in a new flipcam video posted this week. "I really am 60 years old. I was born in 1951....But there seems to be people that do not believe my age. So if I can get 100,000