LeRoy Bell is up next, and the Le-reel shows him for the first time without his hat. Just a normal, under there, covered with a lot more jet-black hair than I'm going to have at sixty. He's even singing bareheaded, with a production that's fairly stripped down for this episode, limited to just the crazy lights and the Jumbotron as he performs Pink's "Nobody Knows." It's lovely as always, if not the in-your-face stuff that tonight seems to call for. L.A. agrees that it wasn't a great song for him, but Paula compares his voice to that of Michael Bolton. I think she means it as a compliment. Simon also thinks LeRoy's got one of the best voices in the competition, but calls him on a lack of confidence and "awkwardness," and thinks he'd do a better job mentoring him than Nicole did. Nicole retorts that she wanted the world to see LeRoy's eyes (LeRoy nods from behind his chunky glasses), and Steve reminds LeRoy that his fate tonight is up to Nicole, not Simon. I think LeRoy knows that.

Stacy Francis's turn. "I'm fighting for my life," she says in the Stacy-reel with her typical equanimity. Her song tonight is "One More Try" by George Michael, which she does with a whole lot more restraint than we've seen from her before. L.A. tells Nicole she got it right this time, and adds to Stacy that what he's most proud of is, "You're not crying, so don't start." Amazingly, she doesn't. Paula says she looks like a star and told a great story. As for Simon, he doesn't like her big feathered bomber jacket or the song Nicole picked, saying it wasn't a good selection for a "church singer" like Stacy. Nicole shuts Simon down, insisting it all gave Stacy wings, whatever that means. Stacy wants to talk more with Simon about his assessment of her as a church singer when she wants to be a pop singer, but Steve comes onstage and tells them to save it for the break. Because that conversation might have been interesting, but that won't work on a live show, will it?