Irving teen Brandon Hassan brought back to X Factor as member of boy band Playback

But where's Panda?

Fox

Panda Ross performs in front of the judges on an epsiode of X Factor, which aired Wednesday, September 19.

It was a bittersweet episode of The X Factor on Wednesday. First of all, let me ask the question in everyone’s mind. Where is Panda Ross? Why have the producers left her out? She was one of the most entertaining acts on the show, and after her audition we didn’t see her anymore. Simon Cowell even said she sounded like a legend. Even Panda noticed, and she has been tweeting up a storm.

But thankfully, there will be a local to watch -- though it was a very close call. Brandon Hassan, a high school student who made it through the audition and Hollywood rounds, was eliminated. Gasp! But then something magical happened — he was brought back in to form part of a group that I can already hear people calling the "American One Direction." I will be honest, I wasn’t impressed with Brandon when we first saw his audition. He received very little camera time, maybe because he didn’t have a crazy back story.

Would You Playback This Boy Band?

Posted by TheXFactorUSA on YouTube.

Brandon is now part of Playback, a boy band formed by Cowell for the competition. Last year, Paula Abdul mentored the groups, but the groups were big flops. This year, I am liking the groups more. The kids in Playback look good together, sound good, and thankfully they stayed away from doing too many harmonies; that could’ve gotten messy since I am guessing they didn’t have much time to practice. They weren’t as powerful as Lylas, another group created by Cowell, this time with five girls, but they were very entertaining.

Playback and the other groups performed at Cowell’s home where Cowell and Marc Anthony decided which three groups make it to the next round. I am pretty sure Lylas and Lyric145 will make it. The tossup will be between Playback and Emblem 3.

Demi Lovato and guest mentor Nick Jonas were in charge of the young adults, a category they both would be in if they were competing. There were some great contestants on that category, too.

What do you think? Will Brandon and his group Playback make it to the live shows? Did you like their performance?