Last night the producers got a real fright on X factor UK when the audio for Danny Tetley and Anthony Russel’s performances got totally screwed up. As a result, tonight, all 12 performances will be shown again before the vote opens. Presumably, two acts will still be heading home tonight, and we will also see performances from James Arthur and Liam Payne. I won’t be recapping all of the performances again that we already saw, but I’m still excited to see James and find out which acts make it to next week! The show starts at 3:30 PM Eastern, so join me then!

Here we go. No drawn out intro. Dermot makes the same joke I did, and then says we’re going to watch all 12 performances again. Six performances now, then a commercial, than the other six.

While I listen to them again, a few assorted thoughts on last night. I think overall, it was a very strong night. I appreciated that some acts got to give subtle performances, even with the most unsubtle theme that X Factor has. I think a few acts are pulling away from the pack, namely Dalton, Shan and Scarlett. I think they will be the final 3 at this point. After seeing United Vibe again, I’m going to be really mad if they survive this week. One thing that this rushed recap makes totally clear is that X Factor could start doing 2 performances a week much sooner than they do.

Danny’s performance is happening now. It’s good, but I still think he’s in trouble. He doubled down on his comments from after his performance last week on TV this week.

Anthony’s performance might be my favorite of his so far on the live shows. I think he screwed the lyrics up but who cares?

After the break, we see the remaining 6 performances and James Arthur performs!

And there we go. All 12 performances have re-aired and the vote is open.

14 minutes of voting and then we will have a sing-off.

James Arthur is up now to sing his new single Empty Space. He’s my favorite X Factor UK winner we’ve had so far. The backing track is too loud for parts of this performance. But when I can hear James, he sounds wonderful. And I really do like this song. James puts on his guitar near the end and jams out. He’s wonderful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LzrdK_3_d8

Liam Payne and Jonas Blue now. Liam pops up onto the stage and the girls in the audience immediately shriek. It’s clearly a recurring issue with backing tracks this week – hard to hear Liam. I didn’t catch the name of the girl singing in this song with Liam. I don’t hate the song but I don’t like it either.

The vote is closed. After the break, it’s the result.

In no particular order, the 9 acts who are safe are:

Shan Ako

Anthony Russell

Scarlett Lee

Danny Tetley

Dalton Harris

Brendan Murray

Misunderstood

Giovanni Spano

Bella Penfold

Bottom 3: United Vibe, Acacia & Aaliyah, Molly Scott

Lowest number of votes: United Vibe – thank god for that one.

Sing off between Molly and Acacia & Aaliyah

Acacia & Aaliyah perform the song they did at Judges Houses I think. Too Big For Your Boots or something like that. They go into the audience halfway through the performance. If they go home, I eat my imaginary hat. All judges except Simon stand for them.

Molly Scott performs Human. She’s killing this, but it doesn’t matter. She’s a goner despite being the better act. At least all of my favorites are safe. She’s fighting really hard, and I hope she stays despite knowing that she won’t. That was her best performance so far. Easily.