Montage of more suckmeisters, set to Britney's own "Toxic," appropriately enough, because this segment is all Britney. A portly salesman who barks gets told to practice more, a 41-year-old fitness instructor is pronounced "just kinda bad," and a student gets told his singing "wasn't very nice." She delivers a string of similar zingers, getting increasingly comfortable with laying them out and raining down no's. "And people say I'm the mean one," Simon says after a while of this. There can be more than one, Simon.

We come back from the ads continuing to establish the narrative of how mean Britney is, which she justifies by saying she's trying to be honest and not waste anyone's time. Considering that Britney Spears has contributed to more human time-wasting than most people in the history of the species that does seem like the least she can do. We now meet a precocious seventh-grader named Reed Deming, who, along with the show, is playing up his vaguest possible resemblance to Justin Bieber. He's there with his Dad and nervous about performing in front of Britney, who is currently earning that by telling yet another off-key auditioner no. Reed watches Brit's latest victim limp off the stage crying, but bucks himself up and struts out there. Demi gushes about how cute he is, and he sings "It Will Rain" by Bruno Mars with rather more passion than skill. Simon stops him halfway through the first verse and tells him to shake off the nerves. He does much better with a stripped-down version of "Grenade," though. Simon tells him he wants better vocals, Demi compliments his stage presence, L.A. says he reminds him of some other kid, although Reed says he doesn't want to "fall into that Bieber stereotype." Stop diving at it then, kiddo. Finally, with many suspenseful pauses, Britney tells him he's adorable. They all vote yes, even Britney. And of course Kaci Newton's stink-eye is getting a huge workout. After all this buildup, she'd better be either very good or very bad. I don't even care which one anymore.