'The X Factor' Season 1, Episode 12 Find Out Who Made the Top 11 Recap

The show opens like all the live shows have thus far: It's time to face the music! Rocketing X logo! Steve Jones! Lights! Transition to camera stage right! Judges! Creepy wink from Simon!

But what's different about tonight is that the first eliminations decided by the audience vote will occur by the end of the episode. So what we have here is a results show which, if "American Idol" is any indication, means a group number with all the contestants right... about... now.

There they all are, dressed up in gold save for Astro, who gets his own verse because he's a rapper and all... except he clearly forgot his words. Oops. InTENsity is still an amorphous blob of of a group, the last to enter and taking center stage to jump up and down.

You know what else is silly about the mentors comparing them to "Glee," (besides everything they've said so far)? The "Glee" cast is a bunch of 20-somethings playing teenagers. InTENsity is actually a bunch of teenagers. Those five to seven years can make a big difference, talent-wise.

A big clip package recaps the performances from last night, and some of the comments from the judges. So far, "X Factor" is winning out against "Idol" in terms of giving us content relevant to the show, as opposed to sponsor crap and empty interviews.

That said, my memory isn't so bad that I can't remember what happened 24 hours ago.

Oh, wait, I spoke too soon. Now we're getting interviews with all the contestants about how they feel about Pepsi, and what they would do with their Pepsi commercial, and just how much everybody loves Pepsi. Pepsi, ya'll! Drink it! Please! They fund us!

Pushing it even further, the next performance is from Outta Sight, whose song "Tonight is the Night" is featured on the current Pepsi commercial. PEPSI. When it's done, Steve steps up to throw to commercial, while the Outta Sight dancers stand awkwardly in freeze frame in the background.

The next clip package features each contestant saying some variation of "this is my dream," or "I would be devastated if I went home," or "this is my last chance." I sense another supercut from Vulture coming.

Ah, so here's how it's going to work: ten acts going to go through now, and the remaining two will "sing for survival," after which point the loser will be thrown into a pit of starving tigers or something. But what that means is it will still be up to judges who goes home... the audience vote just gives immunity to one act.

So the ones with immunity are Marcus, Drew (pause as Steve tries to Seacrest us and makes an exceptionally long, awkward show of it before throwing to commercial), LeRoy(!), Astro, Lakoda Rayne(?), Rachel Crow, Chris Rene, Josh Krajcik, Melanie Amaro, and Stacey Francis.

That means all of the Boys, Girls, and Over 30s are safe and will perform next week. The Stereo Hogzz and InTENsity will have to perform against each other to impress the judges and avoid being eliminated. I suppose it's not surprising that the viewing audience chose to vote for the solo acts instead of the groups, considering they know the soloists more personally. I can't name a single member of InTENsity.

What is surprising, though, is that Lakoda Rayne was voted through while The Stereo Hogzz weren't. The Hogzz gave a much better performance and are a more cohesive group. Maybe it's because Lakoda Rayne has one fewer member, and we saw them all individually at auditions.

The Hogzz are up first, and they get a big, dramatic intro before launching into "Emotions" by Destiny's Child. Anti-climactic.  As always, their harmonies aren't the cleanest, but the performance is fine. I guarantee you it's better than whatever disaster InTENsity is about to give us.

As usual, they all stand in a cluster center stage and bounce around awkwardly while the one girl takes the verse, then they all sing the chorus in unison. It's painful. Painful. I hate to be cruel to these children, but really... this was a horrible idea from the beginning.

Simon votes for the Hogzz to go home. He's out of his mind, and he clearly sees dollar signs in these kids where there aren't any. Paula votes InTENsity, and the kids are already crying. Nicole votes InTENsity out as well, but trails off at the end in an attempt to sound like she really cares, you guys. L.A., after being rushed by Steve, votes InTENsity out as well.

Listen, I hate to see the dreams of a bunch of teenagers crushed (again, since they were all eliminated before) but this group was never a good idea. Not the fault of the kids, it lies squarely on the producers.

And thus, with a "take care bye bye" from Steve Jones, the field is cut to eleven:

Boys: Marcus, Astro, Chris

Girls: Melanie, Rachel, Drew

Over 30s: LeRoy, Stacey, Josh

Groups: The Stereo Hogzz, Lakoda Rayne