‘Car crash entertainment’ may be an overly-coined phrase these days, especially in relation to any of Simon Cowell’s shows, but that phrase would definitely suit the US X Factor, if you minus the entertainment part.
The US X Factor was one massive two hour long car crash from beginning to end. It had the same over-stylised production and the same level of schmaltzy stories and mentally deranged people that the UK show utilises, except it was so much worse.
Yes, it had the shock factor; from a Prince-wannabe parading and screaming like a mad man, to male genitalia being shown causing Paula Abdul to throw up. This may seem entertaining but quite frankly like anything Cowell is producing at the moment (other than the UK’s X Factor) it turned out to be really boring.
The panel of judges were not brilliant, not what you would expect from America at all. Simon Cowell pales in comparison to his UK replacement Gary Barlow, Paula Abdul is just scary to look at and L.A. Reid should be on a less funny version of Grumpy Old Men.
And then to top it all off, Cheryl Cole was replaced by the bubbly and the very annoying Nicole Scherzinger without explanation which quite rightly irritated American audiences.
The contestants themselves, hoping to win that $5 million recording contract, were equally as annoying as the judges. Ranging from the talented to the talentless whatever their case was, it would be easy to consider them hideous.
Starting from a 13 year old girl singing Mercy by Duffy, a song which Duffy once said performing it was ‘like having sex’, to a singer-songwriter wearing velour only for both his ‘pants’ to fall down. Not car-crash entertainment just car crash television.
This begs a question that might need answering. Has Simon Cowell lost ‘the X Factor’?
Apart from being a dull personality on screen, tame in comparison to the old Mr Nasty, his programming may be starting to lose the interest of audiences not just here, but globally.
Red or Black? bombed in the ratings, the new judging panel on Britain’s Got Talent was unsuccessful in drawing the same ratings and with Michael McIntyre leaving the judges table this past week it poses further risk to one of Britain’s most popular shows.
Not only that, but across the pond, US X Factor’s debut apparently did worse in the ratings than America’s Got Talent first episode of 2011. If Piers Morgan is doing better than Simon Cowell in the American ratings then surely something must be going wrong?
Actually, maybe it is not that bad for Cowell; after all, his other versions of the X Factor have turned out to be successful. The ‘new generation’ of judges on the UK’s X Factor are helping ITV win the ratings war as reports suggest that 11.8m viewers tuned in to Boot Camp at the weekend. His shows still remain incredibly popular even though critics and the public alike detest the contrived production of Syco’s shows.
Therefore it would not be wrong to conclude that maybe Cowell still has the ‘X Factor’ and will remain to have it for a quite a while yet. However, a lesson that could be learned, in relation to X Factor USA and Red or Black?, is that less is more and this is what Cowell needs to pick up on if he wants to remain the entertainment world’s ‘top dog’.
Has Simon Cowell lost his X Factor? What did you think of the latest series of X Factor and X Factor USA? Let us know by commenting below, emailing [email protected] or by tweeting us @labelonline.
