Demi Lovato was forced to kick “X Factor” contestant Jennel Garcia off of the reality singing show on Thursday night.

The double elimination narrowed down the competition and almost everyone knew that someone good was going to go home, but almost no one thought that CeCe Frey was going to be one of the ones who stayed.

After most of the judges failed to be impressed by Frey’s performance on Wednesday, it seemed unlikely that she was going to survive to sing another week on the show and that Demi Lovato would have one less act to mentor.

It turned out that Lovato does have one less act to mentor, but that it wasn’t Frey.

Paige Thomas and Jennel Garcia, arguably two of the best singer on “The X Factor” found themselves in the bottom two.

Even though Simon Cowell’s act, Lyric 145, was eliminated first, he seemed giddy that one of Lovato’s steller singers were about to go home.

Jennel Garcia sang Hoobastanks “The Reason” for survival, but she was unable to outshine Paige Thomas’ version of Coldplay’s “Paradise.”

The drama was taken to new levels when Simon Cowell refused to vote on who would be sent home even though L.A. Reid and Britney Spears both said they chose to have Garcia go home.

By Cowell refusing to vote, he made Lovato choose which one of her acts would be sent packing.

Cowell smiled and explained his deranged technique backstage:

"I knew I was gonna keep Paige which meant [Demi] wasn't going to have to make a decision. I thought, bearing in mind they're both your artists, I want to see which one you're going to ... destroy their career."

"It was fun to see [Demi] squirm in that moment because she thought she was going to get out of it and I thought 'No, you're not.'"

Britney spears