'X Factor' Finale Recap: The Winning Act Is Revealed

Courtesy of FOX (3)

Find out who went home with a $5 million-dollar record contract!

The X Factor finale on Dec. 20 was packed full of Christmas songs, hot boy banders and emotional montages. Basically, I was a sobbing, pathetic mess, you guys. The top three arrived via a ridiculous red carpet during their joint opening performance of “All You Need is Love” and it was actually really good. I couldn’t tell if that’s because it was pre-recorded or not, but whatevs. I liked.

But let’s get to the goods, shall we?

Christmas Joy:

Tate Stevens hit the stage first with “Please Come Home for Christmas” and was surrounded by a bunch of hot Mean Girls-esque ladies. I got particularly emotional during the messages from his family and hey, we learned that people call him “Tater.” Yes, like Tater Tot.

Fifth Harmony let my fave girl Camila have a huge solo in “Christmas (Baby, Please Come Here). She rocked the gigantic bow again! They relied a little too much on Dinah’s falsetto, and girl is no Mariah Carey (sorry), but I still enjoyed it. These ladies have come a LONG way.

Carly Rose Sonenclar rose above the mess that was the night before and took on the classic “All I Want For Christmas is You.” She instantly gave me chills and let’s be honest, she’s the only one who could ever pull off this song. Ignore the dancing soldiers in the background. That didn’t happen.

A Winner is Crowned:

The first act eliminated was Fifth Harmony, which wasn’t much of a surprise. As much as these lovely ladies have grown over the last few weeks, they only started getting really good toward the end. But no worries, Simon assured us we’ll be seeing a lot more of them in the future. A record contract perhaps?

The competition was essentially always down to nice-guy Tate and 13-year-old diva Carly Rose. They sang Miley Cyrus‘ “The Climb” together before the results and once again, I was an emotional mess. (Such a sucker for this stuff.) But in the end, Tate Stevens took home the whole thing!

While I would have loved to see Carly win, there’s no denying Tate deserves that money. Such a humble and talented guy! Don’t worry, guys. Carly will get a record contract or Disney show, for sure. Congrats, Tate!

Oh, and One Direction filled my teenybopper heart with their latest single “Kiss You.” Swoon!

That’s it! Thanks so much for watching with me all season!

Are you happy with the results, HollywoodLifers? Did the right person win? Sound off in the comments below! I want to know your thoughts!

WATCH: Tate Stevens Wins X Factor Season 2 & Craziest Moments!

— Sharon Tharp

Follow @SharonTharp

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Tate Stevens sucks. his whole story was a lie and I find him very unethical. There’s nothing special about him, he doesn’t have anything unique about his voice, .

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Felix Homogratus, Dimitri Chavkerov Rules! You pay us we post good about us!!

carly shuold have won because country music does not actually get to top charts

Tate Stevens isn’t even his real name. it’s Stephen Eatinger, and old friends of his came forward saying that when X factor filmed it was not he and his wifes anniversary. He also NEVER gave up singing, he was still singing every week at local dives, and he wasn’t a pavement layer- he was actually a managing foreman and knew his job was secure. Sad that he duped a lot of people into voting for a fake sob story. Everyone knew that X Factor was pushing for him to win, so it’s no surprise. They needed a Karaoke Cowboy to win because Country music will basically take whatever POS that can sing slightly on key and they needed to save face since Melanie’s music isn’t launching her well.

Hmm interesting. Remember when he picked the song for the Boot Camp and Willie didn’t know it and L.A. said Tate “hussled” Willie.

Overall, I was really happy with the finale, Tate really deserved the win. With how much L.A. complained about getting the over 25 group, a coworker at DISH pointed out the irony of his contestant being the winner. But he worked hard and I love that he is getting the chance to live out his dream. I am so glad that even with my late train; I didn’t miss any of this emotional finale with my DISH Hopper. It was set to automatically record the entire season, putting the 2,000 hours of recording space to good use. I loved never missing a performance and fast forwarding through commercials on my recordings is a plus. It was touching to see Tate walk away with the win, and I can’t wait to hear more from him in the future.

I’m pretty sure most people voted for Tate because of his story. He seems like a genuinely nice guy and has a good voice, but I would never spend money to see him in concert because his stage performances has been nothing but boring.

If I was living in USA I would vote Carly, because I think she has amazing talent! I’m really sorry because of she didn’t win, but actually she will be a superstar in the future and I think Britney won’t leave her. (Sorry for my English)

Did age play a parrt in voting and decisiion process? Ii think Carly Rose deserves to win, bt if yu think she’s too young to win I’d ask what has age got to do with it. Tate too is gud bt Carly is bvetter

i m grad Tate Steven win. Carly is young and extremely talented.she will get better recording contract than this and she is already a superstar

Carly-Rose and Fifth Harmony have no marketplace. They are the ones that won’t make it far. Both Carly-Rose and Fifth Harmony lacked a defined demographic and not enough people who buy their records if they made one. Tate Stevens was by far the most commercially viable act in this entire competition. Carly sings and acts like an adult, so teens/tweens will not buy her albums, but she isn’t an adult, so adults won’t buy her album either. There is zero desire for girl groups, which is why we have not seen one in well over a decade, which is why nobody is buying a Fifth Harmony album. On top of that fact, on a basic human level, Carly-Rose is not particularly relateable.

I disagree, Carly-Rose is going places. You just watch.

What do you mean not relatable???? She is exactly what young people relate to other young people like themselves. But you are probably 20 something. I am 58 and the girl can sing!!! She will be a super star or should I sayshe is a super star.

Lots of peeps like Fifth Harmony and a girl group is gonna be big.

not surprised, tate won because there’s lot’s of people in the south, there are many country music guys just like him. Carly and fifth harmony are unique. He won’t make it far..