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Winner Chosen - The X Factor faces the toughest challenge of the season: filling two hours of a show whose purpose is to convey a single piece of information.

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Home Stretch

Season 3 – Top 3 Perform - In the last week, it's all over but the shouting. And there is a LOT of shouting.

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And Then There Were Three Or Four

Season 3 – Top 4 Results Show - The finalists are selected as one act hits the road.

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Just Duet

Season 3 – Top 4 Perform - The top four make a surprisingly strong showing, especially considering how surprising it is that most of them even got this far.

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So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehn, Goodbye

Results Show - Sit back and enjoy a live evening of wide-eyed ingénues singing desperately for approval. But enough about The Sound of Music…

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Divas Unplugged

Top Six Perform - A two-round episode has the finalists performing diva songs, unplugged renditions and sometimes both.

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No Pardons

Season 3 – Top 8 – Results Show - It's a special time to give thanks that there are only six acts remaining.

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Bigger and Bander

Season 3 – Top 8 – Performance Show - The top eight bring their A-games for Big Band night. Or at least most of them do.

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1D, 2 Fs

Season 3 – Top 10 Results Show - There's one direction left for two of the remaining acts: toward the exit.

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Rue Brittania

Top Finalists Perform - The top ten take on the British Invasion, as if having to deal with Simon isn't enough.

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The Girl Who Lived (But Didn't Win)

Results Show - A double elimination episode visits terrible humiliations on the female finalists. And then there are the voting results.

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Back to the Past

Season 3 – Top 12 Finalists Perform - It's eighties night for the top thirte-- sorry, the top twelve.

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Mulligan Stew

Season 3 – Top 13 Results - What if a televised singing competition messed up the voting information it put on the screen, forcing it to invalidate the results? Obviously nobody is that incompetent, but just humor us for an hour.

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Motown, Mo' Problems

Season 3 – Top 12 Perform - Election Day was just a warm-up as the voting begins.

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All Filler, No Killer

Meet the Top 12 - Here, have a full hour of the parts of this show that you usually fast-forward past.

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25% Off

Season 3 – Top 12 Chosen - The finalists are trimmed from 16 to 12. Don't ask us how the show found time for 16 performances.

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My Creation, Is It Real?

The Four-Chair Challenge Round #4 - With three Simon-made Frankengroups in contention, it's just a question of which of the seven preexisting groups gets the fourth slot. Or is it?

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Mulligan

The Four-Chair Challenge Round #3 - Paulina likes making decisions on her top four so much that she makes some of them twice.

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10 Girls 4 Chairs

The Four-Chair Challenge Round #2 - Demi locks in her final four.

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Musical Chairs

The Four-Chair Challenge Round #1 - The X Factor accepts the hard reality: four chairs on a stage make a lot more budgetary sense than airplane seats to the judges' homes.

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The Ex-Factors

Auditions #6 - It's the end of auditions, which means the beginning of Boot Camp and the Judges' Homes. If those things were happening this season, which they're not.

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Take a Knee

Auditions #5 - More freakshows, mediocre talent and a couple of actual standouts are overshadowed by an onstage marriage proposal. And guess which category that couple is in.

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You Again

Auditions #4 - Another veteran makes a triumphant return. Good for her, maybe not so good for the show's long-term future.

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Jump Around

Auditions #3 - The judges face another slew of hopefuls and weirdoes, as well as one returning veteran.

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Simon Sings

Auditions #2 - Surprisingly, Simon is not the worst vocalist of the night.

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Three Women and a Baby

Auditions #1 - Simon and Demi welcome two new judges to the panel in an hour that features more triumph than farce. Of course, that only refers to the singers.

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All I Want for Christmas Is the End of The X Factor

Season Finale, Part 2 - In which it takes two hours to find out who will become the next Melanie Amaro.

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Kid Gloves

Season Finale Part 1 - For the cutthroat final round, the judges get… nice.

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Fifth 3rd and 3 Fourth

Live Results - The finalists are announced in a rollercoaster night for Simon.

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Semi-Great

Season 2, Top Finalists Perform - The curve really goes up when you take away CeCe.

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"Winners" and Losers

Live Results - Two more acts are denied the hope of rising to the famous heights of one of tonight's guest singers.

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Pulling the Plug

Top Finalists Perform - The top six go stripped-down and acoustic, and then they go the opposite of that.

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Six of One, Half-Dozen of the Other

Results - Surprises abound in the bottom three, mainly because of who's not among them.

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Eight it Up

Top Finalists Perform - Seven acts make a bid for the number-one spot and then there's CeCe.

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Two Teens Tumble from the Top 10

Live Results - In the true spirit of Thanksgiving, The X Factor dashes the hopes of two singers upon Plymouth Rock.

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The Importance of Being Earnest

Top Finalists Perform - In which a singing competition becomes a tear-jerking competition.

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The Last Word

Live Results - While two young singers await their fate, the judges would rather make it all about themselves.

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Their Own Worst Enemies

Top Finalists Perform - When they revealed all the rankings last week, who could have predicted that the fallout would reach all the way to tonight? Besides everyone?

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Pulling Rank

Live Results #1 - We find out not only who was in the bottom two, but who was in the top two, and every two in between.

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The Dirty Baker's Dozen

Top Finalists Perform - The top twelve become the top thirteen. This is going in entirely the wrong direction.

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Easy Dozen

Live Show #2 - We already have our top twelve, and it only took a month and a half.

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Simon vs. L.A.

Live Show #1 - Simon Cowell and L.A. Reid use their critiques of the performers to bludgeon each other, Demi tries to do her job, and Britney is there.

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Part Three (Part Four)

Judge's House #3 - Meet the hacked-off hunk of last Wednesday night's truncated episode, wriggling around on its own. You're welcome.

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X Factorius Interruptus

Judge's House #3 - The top 24 learn which of them will be in the top 16 -- at least in theory.

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Young and Old

Judge's House #2 - The kids sing for Britney and the geezers sing for L.A.

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Come Into My Parlor

Boot Camp #3, Judge's House #1 - As the round at the judges' house begins, the stakes rise and one contestant vows to change her spots.

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It Takes Two

Boot Camp #2 - The second round of Boot Camp finds the Top 60 duetting… against each other? With each other? Since the rules aren't clear, we're not sure it matters.

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Hustle in Florida

Boot Camp #1 - The top 120 go to Miami, where half of them soon face their own burn notices.

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Is That It?

Auditions #6 - The auditions finally wrap up, somehow leaving us both exhausted and wondering if a star has been found at the same time.

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Wade In Deep

Auditions #5 - No longer content with just humiliating the auditioners, one of the judges takes aim at the people who work for them.

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Storming the Stage

Auditions #4 - Tonight's overwrought pre-credits sequence includes the dramatic titles, "THE AUDTIONS! HIT!! GREENSBORO!!!!!!. And a nation says, "Where?"

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Lucky Louie

Auditions #3 - During Simon's brief illness, his chair is temporarily filled by…someone.

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Inside and Outside Providence

Auditions #2 - Is this a singing competition or a make-Britney-Spears-uncomfortable competition?

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Speared

Auditions #1 - It wouldn't be The X Factor without some unimpressive singers. And then there are the people who are auditioning.

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Lots of Filler, Not Much Thriller

Season Finale Part 2 - How long does it take to name a winner already? As much time as they want it to.

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Duets

Season Finale Part 1 - Josh, Chris and Melanie share the stage with Alanis, Avril and R.

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Saved by...

Live Results - See what happens to Marcus when he doesn't get a save-me song.

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Semi-Excellent

Top 4 Performance - The semi-finals and the Pepsi Challenge bring new meaning to the phrase "pop song."

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Canty Be Done Already

Live Results - Could anything possibly save Marcus Canty after his third consecutive trip to the bottom two? How about one cowardly judge?

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Pepsi Challenges

Top 5 Perform - It's the first week where none of the performers screw up too badly, but the show itself steps into the breach.

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Simon's Scowl

Top 7, Live Results - That X Factor school room is going to be a lot emptier this week.

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The King of Pop is Dead; Long Live the King of Pop

Top 8 Perform - The top seven go after some Michael Jackson songs. Will Conrad Murray soon have cellmates?

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Double Down

Top 9, Live Results - The top nine becomes the top seven in a bad night for the female judges.

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Stuffing and Turkeys

Top 9 Perform - Some of the acts should be giving thanks for the fact that the judges seem reluctant to criticize Thanksgiving performances.

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Astro -- Not!

1 of 10 Voted Off - Paula finally has a good results show, but she's about the only judge who does.

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Rock Off

Top 10 Perform - For "Rock Week," we get to listen to...the judges arguing with each other about what is and isn't rock.

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Who Let the Hogzz Out

Results Show - Paula's record goes 0 for 2.

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A Night at the Obscure Movies

Top 11 Perform - Tonight is all about songs from movies, which means pretty much any song will do.

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DisconTENt

Results Show - Results night is a bad night for Paula, but a good night for the people who have to find room to put all these damn contestants.

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The Dirty Dozen (a.k.a. Josh and 11 Other Acts)

Top 12 Perform - For the first time, the audience's voices will be heard. But not until after we listen to the finalists' voices for two hours.

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Five Singers: So Long

Live Show - Seventeen acts perform, but five Have a Bad Day.

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Making the Hard Choices

Judges' Homes #3 - After the judges spend two hours going on and on about having to ditch 16 of the 32 remaining acts, they...don't.

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Not-Entirely-Sweet Sixteen

Judges' Homes #2 - The long slog to the live shows continues, as the second half of the top 32 perform in the judges' back yards.

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Singing for Their Supper

Judges' House #1 - 16 of the top 32 sing for the judges at their homes. Whatever will happen in the next episode?

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Putting the "Boot" in "Boot Camp"

Boot Camp #2 - There are few surprises in the course of narrowing down a hundred remaining contestants to 32, but a number of rejects face a shocking denouement. No, they don't get shot.

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Putting the "Camp" in "Boot Camp"

Boot Camp #1 - After the top 162 acts arrive at Boot Camp and 62 are sent back to whence they came, the top 100 are thrown into groups to perform together. Unlike any other show you might be thinking of.

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Newark and Everywhere Else

Auditions #4 - From all over the East Coast and all over the country, it's another batch of winners, losers, squeakers and way too many hats.

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Simon Says

Auditions #3 - Chicago and Seattle again for some reason provide more talent, more lack thereof, and a look at what happens when Simon doesn't get his way.

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More of the Same

Auditions #2 - Miami and Dallas are the scene for more crazies, more hopefuls and more hopelesses.

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West Coast Whackos

Auditions #1 - Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and others judge aspiring and deluded singers at initial auditions in Los Angeles and Seattle. But it's nothing like that other show.

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