The X Factor: Down to the Final 8

After last week’s elimination of two of the competition’s youngest on The X Factor, the pressure is on for the contestants to perform better than ever in order to earn their place in the finals.

The X Factor said a tearful goodbye to two members of Britney Spears’ teens group when Beatrice Miller and Arin Ray were eliminated from the competition.  It wasn’t all bad news, however, for Ms. Spears on last week’s Thanksgiving episode, because her other team member, Carly Rose Sonenclar was named the top performer of the week, having earned the most number of votes from the viewers for her amazing rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”

It’s beginning to become very clear that the end is approaching, with many of the remaining contestants truly beginning to show that they are standouts amongst the competition.  Simon Cowell’s Emblem 3 seems to get better each week and LA Reid’s Tate Stevens and Vino Alan have both proven to be heavy hitters in the competition. Demi Lovato’s group has struggled throughout the competition with CeCe Frey and Paige Thomas both finding themselves in the bottom two on more than one occasion. Also still in the competition are possible dark horses Diamond White and Fifth Harmony who seem to perform well each week, but just can’t strike a chord with the viewers.

Tonight, the remaining 8 contestants take the stage in order to win the votes of viewers across the country so that they might earn the chance to move on in the competition. Also on tonight’s episode of The X Factor is the premiere of Britney Spears’ new “Scream and Shout” video featuring will.i.am.

The X Factor airs tonight at 8/7c on Fox.