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"Oh, snap! It&amp;#039;s time! The X Factor USA is ready to kick off its second season in style, and with an (almost) new judging panel to boot. Old favourites (?) LA Reid and Simon Cowell are still around, but this year we&amp;#039;re adding Britney Spears and Demi Lovato to the mix to hopefully shake things up. Tonight, we will see some highlights from the auditions round, many of which will probably be awful but no doubt entertaining. Stay with Digital Spy live from 8/7c for all the action!  21:57Well, that&amp;#039;s it for the season premiere. What did we all think? It&amp;#039;s definitely a lot better this year, I think, and while I wasn&amp;#039;t so sure about Demi on the panel previously, even with the little bit she&amp;#039;s done so far, she&amp;#039;s kind of winning me over. I&amp;#039;m excited to see what the season brings! We&amp;#039;ll be on again tomorrow night (Thursday, September 13) at the same time - 8/7c - and hope to see you there! 21:52LA Reid has never heard anyone take their experience and pain and pour it into a song like she did - not ever. He adds that that&amp;#039;s what that business is all about. Britney finds her voice to be &amp;quot;raspy, sexy and very beautiful&amp;quot;. Simon calls it &amp;quot;incredible&amp;quot; and could feel &amp;quot;so much pain&amp;quot;, telling her to stay strong because she&amp;#039;s so amazing. Demi can&amp;#039;t believe how amazing it was, either, saying that when Jillian sang, she broke her heart. It&amp;#039;s a very easy four &amp;#039;yes&amp;#039;-es for Jillian. I like her - even I&amp;#039;m a bit teary-eyed! 21:49Jillian&amp;#039;s got quite a unique voice that I just love and is singing Jessie J&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Who You Are&amp;#039;. Great track, and she&amp;#039;s got such a real connection to the song that you can see right in front of you. I actually got chills! Demi is in tears, the audience is standing and holding up hearts in the air (Jessie J fans, I see) and even Simon loses it. The holding room for the other contestants is even on their feet. Demi has to come on stage to hug her, it&amp;#039;s that moving.  21:45Next up, it&amp;#039;s Jillian Jensen, who has brought quite a few people on this audition with her. She&amp;#039;s only 19 and is a big fan of Demi Lovato&amp;#039;s as she went through quite a lot in middle and high school since she was severely bullied and Demi helped her. Aw, bless her. 21:36Britney thinks it was &amp;quot;incredible&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;absolutely amazing&amp;quot;, while Demi is amused that she has such a cute face but then gets on stage and is on fire and totally hot. Simon says that she&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;on the money&amp;quot; as right now, the charts are missing a young Pat Benatar. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re different, you&amp;#039;re exciting, I really really like you,&amp;quot; he tells her. It&amp;#039;s four &amp;#039;yes&amp;#039; votes for Jennel. 21:34Jennel&amp;#039;s biggest inspiration is... Pat Benatar? Well, I mean, Pat Benatar is awesome and all, just an odd choice. Anyway, she&amp;#039;s got a pretty good little rock voice and seems quite comfortable on stage, I&amp;#039;ll say that. She&amp;#039;s doing Grace Potter&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Paris (Ooh La La)&amp;#039;, by the way. She&amp;#039;s not the most amazing singer, but she&amp;#039;s bearable and one of the best actual performers we&amp;#039;ve seen tonight, for sure. 21:31Next up, Jennel Garcia. She just graduated from high school and seems pretty normal. Something tells me she&amp;#039;ll be pretty good. 21:26Simon gives Don the &amp;quot;honest truth&amp;quot;, saying that he doesn&amp;#039;t have a good singing voice. Well, that&amp;#039;s blunt. Britney grimaces before saying: &amp;quot;I feel like through the years, maybe you&amp;#039;ve gone through a lot of hardships and battle, but your voice isn&amp;#039;t really up to the bar and the standard that The X Factor needs.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s a &amp;#039;no&amp;#039; from all four judges. Don seems absolutely shocked when he is refused by Britney, but she doesn&amp;#039;t look happy at having had to let him down, either. Backstage, he weeps like crazy, screaming, &amp;quot;Did you see Britney&amp;#039;s eyes? I saw it in her face, I&amp;#039;ve hurt her!&amp;quot; I feel like Don probably needs to seek counseling, to be honest. 21:23He&amp;#039;s singing &amp;#039;Halo&amp;#039; (no, no... you don&amp;#039;t touch Bey). He&amp;#039;s not the worst singer I&amp;#039;ve ever heard, but it&amp;#039;s all over the map and not in tune at all. It&amp;#039;s sort of painful to listen to, and you can tell Britney feels terrible that she&amp;#039;s going to have to tell this guy to take a hike.  21:22Next up is Don Philip, who once used to record with Britney Spears and wanted to be a singer butt it didn&amp;#039;t really work out. To be honest, he seems a bit emotionally unstable and is on the verge of choking back tears even before he gets on stage. It&amp;#039;s clear he still has some feelings of some sort for Britney, but it&amp;#039;s unclear what those are. Adoration? Regret? Intent to harm? Britney recognises him right away and he breaks down in tears, saying he never thought he&amp;#039;d see her again. Uh... I feel uncomfortable. 21:14LA doesn&amp;#039;t like them, he loves them, he says, giving them a pound on the chest. Britney finds them very &amp;quot;funky&amp;quot; with &amp;quot;smooth&amp;quot; voices, while Demi thinks they&amp;#039;re &amp;quot;so cute&amp;quot; and Simon wags his finger at her. Simon loves everything about the audition, from the song to the performance. He also predicts big things for the group going forward, and of course, they&amp;#039;re through to the next round with four &amp;#039;yes&amp;#039;-es. 21:12They&amp;#039;re singing an original song called &amp;#039;Sunset Boulevard&amp;#039; and they&amp;#039;re actually... pretty good. They&amp;#039;re vaguely hip-hop, a little 311-inspired. It&amp;#039;s something quite unique and really gets the judges and audience going. 21:09Vincent&amp;#039;s up first and he&amp;#039;s singing Elton John&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word&amp;#039;. He&amp;#039;s got barely any range and is off-key and just... not very good. Simon stops him halfway through, saying that he&amp;#039;s the clich\u00E9 boyband member that can&amp;#039;t sing. It&amp;#039;s a no for Vincent. Hopefully Emblem3 (who insist that they are NOT a boyband) will fare better.  21:07There&amp;#039;s also a 22-year-old actor called Vincent Thomas with the standard Bieber cut. He used to be in a boyband in Europe that was &amp;quot;almost the next Backstreet Boys&amp;quot;. How&amp;#039;d that work out for ya, bro? He starts chatting the ears off Emblem3 and offering advice, and they politely listen to him, but you can tell they want him to just shut up. 21:06Emblem3, this year&amp;#039;s first group, are skateboarders and brothers. Well, two of them are brothers - the other guy is like the &amp;quot;redheaded step child&amp;quot;. They&amp;#039;re vaguely (okay, really) obnoxious, but let&amp;#039;s find out if they&amp;#039;re any good. 21:00Britney says that he was off-key a little bit but for the most part, he&amp;#039;s really entertaining. Demi also loves him and his bright pink lipstick. Simon says that if you imagine Bobby Brown, Madonna, Dracula and a child, it would be him... but in a weird way, he actually likes it! Yay! LA says no, but he gets a yes from Britney, Demi and Simon!  20:59Now, for a few good ones. Quatrele - who&amp;#039;s come dressed in a veil and bodysuit wedding dress thing and is wearing very high heels. He&amp;#039;s singing &amp;#039;Born This Way&amp;#039; - no surprises there. I think everyone is expecting him to be a bit of a disaster, and while he&amp;#039;s not incredible, he&amp;#039;s okay and has something about him that&amp;#039;s enjoyable. Britney seems absolutely tickled pink by him, in particular! 20:55They&amp;#039;re hoping to find some great contestants, but so far, it doesn&amp;#039;t seem to be going so well. There&amp;#039;s a &amp;quot;raving lunatic&amp;quot; rock singer, a 57-year-old drunk guy, a screaming young lady in a warrior outfit, a belting drag queen... it&amp;#039;s not so great. 20:54We&amp;#039;re moving on to San Francisco, which is, by the way, a great city if you ever have a chance to visit. I was only there for about 24 hours in 2008, mind, but I loved every second of that day. Anyway, onwards! 20:48Simon says it sounds like she was dying, ha! She then bursts out into Duffy&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Mercy&amp;#039;, causing Simon to joke that now he feels like dying. It&amp;#039;s a no across the board for Kaci. Head home, girl. 20:47Well, it&amp;#039;s finally Kaci&amp;#039;s turn. I&amp;#039;m surprised she still has the energy to sing since she spent all day bitching about the other hopefuls. She&amp;#039;s doing &amp;#039;Firework&amp;#039; by Katy Perry and is known for &amp;quot;taking modern songs and making them her own&amp;quot;. Oh, lord. Ugh, make it stop. Her voice is awful. It goes nowhere and doesn&amp;#039;t have much range. Britney&amp;#039;s grimace throughout says it all. This girl is a hot mess. Karma, girl. Simon goes into a blank stare before stopping her early. 20:44Backstage, Demi tells Simon that Niall (from One Direction) says hi, and Simon tells her to stay away from him as he&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;pure&amp;quot;. Ha! 20:38Simon thinks he&amp;#039;s got &amp;quot;steel&amp;quot; in his eyes and is a hard worker, but he wants better vocals. Demi finds him &amp;quot;so adorable&amp;quot; and thinks his stage presence &amp;quot;shines&amp;quot;. Of course, he reminds LA of Bieber, but thinks he has a big personality and a lot of talent. Britney thinks he&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;completely and utterly adorable&amp;quot;. He gets a yes from Simon, LA, Demi and Britney - it&amp;#039;s a full house! 20:36Reed&amp;#039;s singing &amp;#039;It Will Rain&amp;#039; by Bruno Mars (thank God it&amp;#039;s not &amp;#039;Baby&amp;#039;, I suppose?) and actually has a pretty good voice, at least for a 13-year-old kid. Simon stops him a few notes in, however, and asks to hear a different song. So he&amp;#039;s going for... &amp;#039;Grenade&amp;#039;. Sigh. He&amp;#039;s a little shaky, of course, but then, he&amp;#039;s a kid and probably nervous. He&amp;#039;s at least as good as Bieber, that&amp;#039;s for sure.  20:33Moving right along, it&amp;#039;s 13-year-old Reed Denning who is a mini Justin Bieber (so of course they are playing &amp;#039;Boyfriend&amp;#039; in the background). He even gets mistaken by other girls for Bieber. They don&amp;#039;t look that similar, people. 20:27We&amp;#039;re treated to a little medley of failed singers that are pretty awful. Britney tells 18-year-old Will Thomas that he needs &amp;quot;a new teacher to teach [you] how to sing&amp;quot;. She&amp;#039;s just making a whole lot of snaps left and right, telling people they&amp;#039;re confused, off-key, have no direction... basically being her fierce self. Love her! 20:26Simon compares him to &amp;quot;a mouse trying to be an elephant&amp;quot; and says that it&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;just wrong&amp;quot;. Shawn insists that he&amp;#039;s worked &amp;quot;way too friggin&amp;#039; hard for this&amp;quot; and claims that a lot of people copy off his songwriting. Then comes the Demi snap, and Britney&amp;#039;s shade-throwing. Love it. Though to be fair to Shawn, Demi does use autotune... Don&amp;#039;t most pop stars? (To a degree, that is). 20:25Shawn starts doing a bit of a weird dance and I have no idea what he&amp;#039;s singing, but it&amp;#039;s a mess. Oh, &amp;#039;Candy Girl&amp;#039;? Huh. Totally unrecognisable. The judges and audience alike are totally flabbergasted and stark silent. Clearly they can&amp;#039;t believe what they&amp;#039;ve seen. 20:23Next up, it&amp;#039;s Shawn Armenta! You may remember him from the clip floating around Tumblr when he snaps on Demi for using autotune and Britney tells him she&amp;#039;s uncomfortable with him looking at her. This should be a good one.  20:17Paige is not the best singer I&amp;#039;ve heard, but I think she&amp;#039;s great, and she&amp;#039;s got a lot of potential and start quality, I think. Of course, backstage, Kaci is rolling her eyes and pursing her lips like the prissy cow that she is (yes, I&amp;#039;m making judgment calls already), but whatever - do you, Paige! There&amp;#039;s definite room for improvement, but I think she&amp;#039;s great and has something special about her.  Britney thinks Paige is so &amp;quot;bright and beautiful&amp;quot; on stage and exudes so much confidence and dubs her &amp;quot;flawless&amp;quot;. LA wonders why she&amp;#039;s been delaying the inevitable because she&amp;#039;s a star. Then he compares her to a young Rihanna. I told you! Demi is blown away by her stage presence and can see the &amp;quot;sparkle&amp;quot; in her eye of a superstar. Simon loves that she looks and sounds like a popstar, yes, but she&amp;#039;s got a beautiful child and a responsibility that she&amp;#039;s taking seriously, making her the whole package. He claims it&amp;#039;s one of his favourite ever auditions, and it&amp;#039;s no surprise she&amp;#039;s through to the next round. 20:13Stepping out on stage, Paige reveals that she hasn&amp;#039;t had much time to try getting a recording contract as she&amp;#039;s been in school and busy trying to provide for he daughter. She&amp;#039;s singing Mary J Blige&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;m Going Down&amp;#039; - fantastic choice, if she&amp;#039;s good.  20:11First up tonight, it&amp;#039;s Paige Thomas. She&amp;#039;s 21 and has a bit of a Rihanna vibe mixed with the less obnoxious parts of Nicki Minaj. She&amp;#039;s also a mom to a very cute little girl. We also meet 21-year-old Kaci Newton, a tall blonde who says that she&amp;#039;s the one who&amp;#039;s going to win, which pretty much ensures that she&amp;#039;s not. Her and her friend also talk a lot of crap about how Paige has a run in her stockings, with Kaci saying, &amp;quot;Ewwww!&amp;quot; Kaci also describes herself as a mix of Carrie Underwood and Adele, which pretty much means that she sounds like Kermit the Frog on crack. I can&amp;#039;t stand her already. I hope Paige is amazing. 20:08We&amp;#039;re starting off in Austin, Texas tonight and it&amp;#039;s packed solid. The judges are in place, and it&amp;#039;s time to get underway. 20:03Demi Lovato is pumped up and thinks she knows what it takes to make a star, considering she&amp;#039;s been in the business for &amp;quot;four or five years&amp;quot;. What? Swore it was longer than that, but whatever. It&amp;#039;s all about Britney! I know she&amp;#039;s going to throw some shade tonight and I can&amp;#039;t wait. Let&amp;#039;s do this! 20:01It&amp;#039;s Britney, bitch! Okay, sorry, but I&amp;#039;ve been waiting all day to say that. As we kick off, it&amp;#039;s... One Direction? Hey, what are you guys doing here? Well, they&amp;#039;re pumping up The X Factor, of course, considering they were cobbled together as a group on the UK counterpart a couple of years back. I remember it well. In case you missed it, we&amp;#039;re treated to a little reminder that The X Factor has also spawned the great careers of Leona Lewis and Cher Lloyd, as well. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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