'X Factor' Judges Pick Top 32 After An Emotional Boot Camp For All

Nearly 200 acts survived their first encounters with Simon Cowell on The X Factor, but this week's boot camp episodes of the TV singing contest will sort out the weak from the strong.

The USA X Factor version's creative director Brian Friedman said the aspiring singers went through several days of tough vocal, dance, performance and style training in Los Angeles before they were whittled down to 32 acts. It was very long days, Friedman told Reuters.

They are having to do this without being at home. It was very draining and you see a lot of people crumbling under the pressure. They really are weeded out in every area of performance.

The boot camp episodes air on Fox on Wednesday and Thursday as the new talent competition moves closer to what judge and creator Cowell says is its most entertaining and distinguishing feature -- the four judges competing against each other as mentors to different groups of contestants.

But before then, Friedman said those who made it through the initial nationwide auditions are mentally and physically challenged at boot camp.

They had to sing multiple songs that they did not know. They had to dance and that is a challenge we have not seen yet, Friedman said.

WATCH BELOW TO SEE WHAT GROUPS THE JUDGES GET TO MENTOR NEXT: