First live episode whittles pool down to 12 finalists. By Adam Graham Melanie Amaro performs on ‘X Factor’ Photo: FOX Five contestants were shown the door on Tuesday’s “X Factor,” the first live episode of the singing competition. Among those sent away during the two-and-a-half-hour episode was Dexter Haygood, the formerly homeless contestant who once lived on L.A.’s Skid Row. Haygood — described early on as the “funky phenomenon” by his mentor Nicole Scherzinger — said he was “kinda confused” by the dismissal, which followed his bizarro-world mash-up of Britney Spears’ “Womanizer” and Katy Perry’s “I Kissed a Girl,” though he then said he didn’t know why he was confused. “Right now I’m in the boggle zone, which is the 21st century twilight zone,” Haygood explained. Also sent packing during the episode were 20-year-old Tiah Tolliver, a favorite of Simon Cowell’s who was never liked by the other judges; 22-year-old Simone Battle, who plugged her upcoming music video even as she was being given the boot; crooner Phillip Lomax, the 22-year-old who was saddled with singing the outside-of-his-comfort-zone “I’m a Believer” on the episode by his mentor L.A. Reid; and brother duo the Brewer Boys, who apologized to their mentor Paula Abdul (older brother Justin referred to her as “Ms. Paula”) for letting her down in their performance. That left 12 finalists who will go on in the competition: