Image Credit: Fox

WARNING! SPOILERS FOLLOW! After boy band extraordinaire One Direction performed twice inside The X Factor‘s Xanadome to promote their new album Take Me Home – and their fans’ piercing screams effectively liquified my eardrums – they happily bounded backstage to speak with the press, along with judges Simon Cowell, Britney Spears, and Demi Lovato, and co-hosts Mario Lopez and Khloe Kardashian Odom. Judge L.A. Reid skipped almost all press — though it was unclear whether he was licking his wounds from the loss of contestant Jason Brock or celebrating that his other two contestants Vino Alan and Tate Stevens came in third and first in the vote tally.

Speaking of that vote tally, the decision of The X Factor to reveal the voting order — seemingly for the first time in American reality competition show history — was topic A for most everyone. That is, when they weren’t basking in One Direction’s youthful vigor. Here are the top nine highlights of what we learned backstage: READ FULL STORY »