Blog Posts by Lyndsey Parker

"The Voice's" Season 3 battles continued apace on Monday, and once again, the coaches for the most part made the right choices and sent the most deserving singers through to the next round. Fine by me! Yes, maybe "The Voice's" relative lack of shockers and scandals makes these show recaps less tweetable or bloggable, but we'll save all that controversy for the evenings when Fox's also-enjoyable but very different rival show, "The X Factor," airs. Personally, I'd rather just see talent prevail, night after night, with--as this season's guest mentor Mary J. Blige might put it--no more drama. And judging from "The Voice's" ratings this season, many people out there agree with me. So hey, maybe a recap of happy endings and semi-predictable outcomes will get clicks! Yay.

Here's how Monday's mostly sensible battles panned out...

A few weeks ago on "The X Factor," a lovable lady by the marquee-worthy name of Panda Ross captured America's hearts--and seemingly the heart of her longtime crush, Simon Cowell--with her huge personality and huge voice. "You sound like a legend," Simon told Panda, before he and his fellow judges unanimously decided to advance her to the Boot Camp rounds.

And then...Panda was never heard nor seen on TV again. America never got another piece of Panda. "The X Factor's" Boot Camp episodes continued, as the contestants were whittled down from 120 to 60 to 24, but Panda's "Fandas" didn't get another chance to see Panda perform, nor did they ever find out what exactly had happened to her. Considering that the last time Panda appeared on the show, she was being wheeled away from her audition by paramedics (due to a pneumonia relapse), viewers had to wonder--and worry--if she'd even made it safely to Boot Camp in the first place.

Jedward--the "X Factor U.K." Season 6 wondertwins who, frankly, are still more entertaining than almost anyone who's ever been on "The X Factor USA"--are back to light up our lives, hearts, imaginations, and computer screens with a new video, for the aptly titled "Luminous."

Basically, imagine if Adam Lambert's For Your Entertainment album cover served as the inspiration for the storyboard of a budget Care Bears film. Lensed by whoever directed all the Klaxons' music videos. Styled by the wardrobe designers for Xanadu, the Jacksons' Victory Tour, and Sprockets, with all supplies for the video shoot purchased at Spencer's Gifts. Starring the owl from Clash Of The Titans. And then the whole thing was turned into a screensaver.

Yeah, it's sort of like that.

This week on "The X Factor," Season 2's top 24 were announced, and then those two-dozen hopefuls headed to the fake Judges' Houses. My usual "The Day After" co-host, Matt Whitfield, isn't here to share his thoughts on what went down this week...but one of my favorite Season 1 "X Factor" semifinalists, James Kenney, is here to offer the unique perspective of someone who once actually performed poolside at one of the show's famous rented McMansions. (Watch James's "Russian Roulette" performance from last season's Judges' Houses round HERE.)

James is a frequent "Day After" commentator, and his insight and candor always make for fun and refreshing conversation. Check out his thoughts on "The X Factor" Season 1 vs. Season 2 in the video below!

Wednesday night on "The X Factor," L.A. Reid threw a totally unprofesh hissyfit when he found out he'd been assigned the "Over-25's" category. But I guess that was understandable, considering that this show has increasingly celebrated youth to the point of near-fetishization. Remember, last season, the oldest category was called the "Over-30's," and it actually included a contestant who was 60 years old. Additionally, the top four finalists ended up all being 19 or older, with one age 29 and another age 30. But not this year, people. Things are different now.

With new categories labeled "Teens" (ages 12-17) and "Young Adults" (18-24), and with the contestants in the "Groups" category being mostly teenagers as well, AND with new judges Britney Spears and Demi Lovato and guest mentors Justin Bieber and Nick Jonas obviously brought in to court a young demographic...well, it's clear that 30-60 is so not "The X Factor's" target market. L.A. Reid is a competitive man, a man who loves to win and loathes to lose, so I assume that he believed he had no chance of winning Season 2 with some group of supposed old fogeys, when he received his category assignment on Wednesday.

photo courtesy of Erik Kabik / www.erikkabik.com

Christmas came early for "Voice" fans, not to mention for Muppets fans, on October 10, when "Voice" coach Cee Lo Green taped his "Cee Lo & Friends" holiday special at Las Vegas's Planet Hollywood resort and brought out some very special friends indeed.  In fact, it was practically a Christmas miracle when a whopping 20 Team Cee Lo contestants, along with the legendary and beloved Muppets, joined Cee Lo onstage for a massive group singalong of "All I Need Is Love," an original track from his forthcoming Christmas album, Cee Lo Green's Magic Moment.

Boot Camp came to an end on "The X Factor" this Wednesday, and so did the dreams of 36 of this season's 60 remaining contestants. Only 24 singers (compared to last year's top 32) were granted access to the Judges' Houses, some of them only made it to those rented seaside McMansions because they were forced into prefab groups by Svengali Simon Cowell.

A former frontrunner goes homeBut before we get to those lucky top 24, of course no recap of any always-controversial "X Factor" episode would be complete without some serious analysis/complaining about those that didn't make it. Among the notable cuts on Wednesday were gospel belting "legend" Panda Ross, who was bizarrely never shown again after her first memorable audition; 540-pound minister Freddie Combs, whose "Wind Beneath My Wings" also made him an early Season 2 standout; Gene Simmons's daughter, Sophie Tweed-Simmons; and badass bottle-blonde rock chick Julia Bullock, the girl who (apparently unwisely) dumped her band to go solo on this show.

But perhaps the most egregious (and shocking) omission was that of 36-year-old single dad Jeffrey Gutt, whose "Hallelujah" audition this season was so remarkable, it had practically established him as THE man to beat. Jeffrey may have seemed like a sore loser on Wednesday when he grumbled through manly tears, "It's their loss; I could have won the show"--but he did have a point. He would have gone far, maybe to the very end, if he'd been given the chance.

Last night, "The Voice's" Season 3 Battle Rounds continued, with plenty of drama and suspense packed into the hour-long episode. There were pleasant surprises (the triumph of the lovable Cody Belew over the evil Domo, the stealing of Team Adam's Caitlin Michele by Cee Lo Green); not-so-pleasant ones (the early exits of Nathalie Hernandez and Charlie Rey, NBC's perplexing decision to not show two of the battles in full); and lots 'n' lots of great singing. Today, my "The Day After" co-host Matt Whitfield and I break it all down for you...