Idol Chatter & Voice Views

By my calculations, The X Factor still has a numbers problem, even after eliminating five contestants last week.

We all know 12 finalists remain.

Ah, but there are only eight elimination shows between now and Dec. 22, when someone’s supposed to be selected for that $5 million grand prize and the chance to appear in a Pepsi commercial.

(I know, those two prizes sound about as silly in the same sentence as The X Factor’s hype of the Pepsi commercial during last week’s show.)

Anyway, more multiple eliminations might be in our future.  Perhaps as early as this week.

Meanwhile, none of the first-round ousters came as a shock.  Three — Simone Battle, Tiah Tolliver and The Brewer Boys — were at the bottom of my rankings last week.  And if one contestant was going to be eliminated from each group based on talent and the likelihood of winning this thing, I figured Phillip Lomax and Dexter Haygood should be the others to go.

This week’s rankings follow, with last week’s in parenthesis.

1. Drew Ryniewicz (2): Every time this gal performs, she impresses me more.   Last week’s low-key rendition of “I’ve Got a Feeling” from Flashdance was the best of the night.   And I still think she’s got the every-girl appeal at age 14 to overcome the lack of support normally shown for females on a show like this.

2. Marcus Canty (1): One of the young guys is going to become the show’s heartthrob, which means either Marcus or Chris Rene.  Hey, L.A., give Marcus something young and fun to sing, and I think he has a chance to be the surprise contender for that $5 million prize.

3. Chris Rene (3): I haven’t been dazzled by Chris since his audition, but he’s got that great backstory and lots of X Factor hype on his side. I figure he’ll cruise through the first couple weeks of the finals at least.

4. InTENsity (4): They were every bit as young and fun with that “Footloose/3-6-9” performance as I figured they’d be. Very Glee-like.  And the fact that there are 10 of them, all drawing their own fan base to the competition should translate into lots of votes.

5. Josh Krajcik (5): If an Over 30 has a chance to win this thing, I figure it’s Josh.  He seems to be the most celebrated of the remaining three, and there’s no denying his vocal talent, put on display again last week with that nearly a cappella performance of “Forever Young.”

6. Melanie Amaro (8): I’m moving Melanie up a couple spots from last week, but I’m still not convinced she’s the type of female singer who can overcome the odds on a show like this.  It will help if Simon starts serving us less predictable song choices than “I Have Nothing.”  Let her be young and fun, too.

7. The Stereo Hogzz (6): It’s going to be very interesting to see how the groups do on The X Factor USA.  A group has never won the U.K. version of the show.  For now, Simon seems far more impressed with a boy band’s potential to hit paydirt than I am.

8. Astro (aka Brian Bradley) (7): He’s got the swagger down. Now I’m hoping to understand more than 20 percent of what he’s singing, which is about all I could make out over the loud backing track last week.  At this point, he’s too young and highly overrated.

9. Stacy Francis (14): Hey, the 42-year-old single mom didn’t cry last week, which might have been a first.   She also sounded great on “One More Try.”   Those big vocals and her heart-on-her-sleeve approach to performing should win her lots of votes.

10. Rachel Crow (11): I get the “it” where Rachel is concerned.  She’s fun and full of spunk and totally fearless at 13.  I just don’t see how that “it” is going to help her one iota when she gets in a recording studio and has to rely solely on vocals.  That said, she’ll probably do better than this ranking.

11. Lakoda Rayne (10): I hope these girls hang around a while, because they have the potential to offer the show a little musical diversity in the country-pop vein.  And they’re not hard on the eyes either.  Considering the song they were given (“Come On, Eileen”), they did quite well in week one.

12. LeRoy Bell (13): This ranking has absolutely nothing to do with LeRoy’s singing ability.  Fact is, I think he’s got one of the best voices on the show.  I just don’t think the viewers who tend to vote on a show like X Factor are going to tweet or call in like crazy in support of a 60-year-old guy, regardless of talent.