Tonight, American Idol gets serious as the first group of 12, from the final 36, takes to the stage to sing their hearts out on the first live show of the series. Only three of them will make the next round – and before they get there, they come face to face with harsh comments from the judges, in particular Simon Cowell, who shows no let up in dishing out unsavoury comments to the contestants.

First up is Jackie Tohn, 28, who performs ‘A Little Less Conversation’. Though she gets praise from Kara DioGuardi and Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell is not in the mood to be nice, telling her “I think you actually played the clown.” Cowell called her performance “ungainly” and “gimmicky” and also laid into what she was wearing, telling her he “hated her outfit.” Ricky Braddy, 26, is next up and doesn’t get any change from Cowell either, who tells him that he has no “charisma” or “star quality”, while 29 year old Brent Keith was told his performance was “forgettable” and 17 year-old Stevie Wright left all the judges unimpressed, with Simon telling her flatly she has “zero chance” to make it through.

Resident drama queen Tatiana Del Toro, labeled as “the most talked about contestant” by Kara, was told by Cowell that she is a “complete and utter drama queen” – though escaped harsh criticism, with Simon telling her that her performance “wasn’t bad at all.”

Simon left his most stinging criticisms to sexy Casey Carlson telling her “you look good” but that her singing was “atrocious”. He ended his criticism telling her “you shouldn’t have been allowed to sing that song.” Stephen Fowler failed to escape Simon’s wrath either – telling him it was a “pointless performance” with a “terrible arrangement” and telling him “you’ve made a huge mistake.”

Simon did have kind words for some contestants – with popular Anoop Desai told he has “massive likeability”, Alexis Grace told she is a “dark horse”, while Michael Sarver was simply told “we like you” after his performance catapulted him to being a new favourite.

The contestants find out tomorrow night who will be in the top 3 and who will have to sweat it out to see if they make the Wild Card Round next month.

The show airs on Thursday 19th February at 8pm on ITV2.