The X Factor

Judging from the 5.7 rating, it would seem that the majority of viewers are as Luke warm about X Factor as I am....such a disappointment! The irony is....the show just seems to be missing its own X Factor...that elusive quality that makes it appealing, addictive, thoroughly satisfying. Way off the mark from "Idol".

No real human connection. The judges seem to be more interested in besting each other than in mentoring (if that is even an appropriate word in this case) their brood of wannabees.

Simon is beyond redemption as a caricature of himself, Paula will soon be without a group to mis-mother. LA should try NY, and Nicole should just ride off into the has been sunset.

For a genre that after ten years of Idol, and rivaled by the Voice, and a ton of other shows, this is proof that go big or go home really works - it was exciting, captivating, and by opening up the age limits we had youngsters and over 30s who proved that singing is universal, and it's never too early or too late to try.

As I write this 63 votes cast on IMDb and half of those gave this a 1, what show were they watching? - are they on the Idol production team? This was big and fun - less bad auditions, a huge stadium of people to give their opinion, and the return of Simon Cowell, I mean come on, what more do you want?

This is going to be a very long haul - from now all the way through to Xmas - but I've looking forward to every moment. Having watched and seen the amazing success that the X Factor has had in the UK (The number one show producing the number one artist and the UK Christmas number one for the past four years) I feel sure that this is the show that Idol now longs to be; brilliant, brilliant stuff, and the 30 who hated it can vote down my comment, but me, I'm just the audience, and we LOVED it....

Over-produced and just plain dumb. The focus is not the performers, but the panel of judges who are the real drama here. Albeit, lame drama. Get past the auditions, which seemed to last an eternity, and you are left with a "competition" that is comprised of judges clashing egos. For the most part the talent is not front and center, the performance is lost in lights and smoke and dancers and orchestration that takes the eye and ear to everything but the singer. At least with American Idol the focus really is on the performer. There is some true talent on this show (not the judges, no way). But they are being lost to the infighting and strutting of the judges. I'm not watching it anymore.

The United States version of X Factor is unwatchable. Mr. Simon Cowell is nothing more than an egomaniac Svengali with absolutely no eye or ear for true talent. The show's graphics look as if they were thrown together by college freshman at the Art Institute. The host is a train wreck with no entertainment value, charisma or repoire with the contestants. He makes Nick Lachey look like the Ryan Seacrest of reality/talent show hosts. The editing is forced melodrama at warp speed where a judge is speaking to one contestant and tells them that they "didn't make it through" but then, wait for it... they were actually talking to the other contestant! Fooled ya! It is hard to understand the producer's unquenchable penchant for sophomoric television techniques and overblown sob stories. Newsflash: Horatio Alger is not an X Factor contestant, nor are any of the current crop of contestants anything more than individuals that the producers feel will elicit an empathetic response with the viewers and provide drama that overshadows any diminutive factor of marginal talent they may possess.

Mr. Cowell is a lucky little man who found himself in the right place at the right time and his time needs to be up. Not a single act that he has "discovered" or "created" will have any of their songs remembered in twenty years. Genius never made a song for money or fame and those are the only things that motivate this man and his weak minded minions. There is not a single grain of true "X"/it factor in any of them, as evidenced by the fact that he chose to put through an inferior singer named Tiah Tolliver in tonight's episode instead of one of the greatest voices since Aretha Franklin in Melanie Amaro. He knew that Ms. Amaro was the "hit me over the head with a frying pan" obvious threat to his little protégé Tiah Tolliver and chose to get rid of her as his first instinct in order to prove that he is a "hitmaker." Even the staged realization that he had made a mistake in sending Ms. Amaro home was a blatant attempt to recover some of the shine he knows he lost by dismissing Jennifer Hudson on "American Idol" in 2004. Mr. Cowell has no greater ability to discern talent that you or I. He was simply born in the right country at the right time and fell into the right circle of influencers. Caesar from Planet of the Apes would have a better nose for talent and the "it" factor than Mr. Cowell.

I personally challenge Simon to produce his little breast fetish pet Tiah Tolliver and allow me to produce Melanie Amaro in a head to head, nationwide, single release with a televised performance and see which woman truly possesses the "X Factor." The only way Simon will reclaim any of his lost soul is to face the failure of this show due to the weight of his ego. HELP SAVE SIMON COWELL NOW AND BOYCOTT "X FACTOR"!

As it was, with the over-saturation of Simon's smug puss on GAWD-only-knows how many promos about it, I was sharpening up my knives for this, ready to cut a "b" (finish the spelling on that one yourself.) I'd already stuck a fork in American IDOL...I had reached my limit of seeing anyone who had even a remote lick of talent get tossed to the side, while some twit barely out their teens shrieking a cover of some great rock or blues song got to take home the Grand Prize, instead of a "booby prize" they were more than worthy of. (Sorry, but when the greatest agony of your life is running out of ProActiv, you have no business attempting to sing Rod Stewart, Aretha, Al Green or anything that grown-ups SHOULD be singing.)

I was mostly familiar with the Brit version because of the overwhelming successes of both Paul Potts and Susan Boyle, two talents possessed of great voices, but with 'faces for radio,' as the old joke goes. Still, I was intrigued by the idea that it would be a singing competition now open to ALL ages and ALL styles, (unlike AMERICA'S GOT TALENT, the more big-budgeted version of THE GONG SHOW, where anything goes...and I do mean ANYTHING!)

But with Simon involved, I mostly expected an 'American IDOL' clone for much older people. Fancy my shock and surprise when I gave it a chance, and discovered that even though it's just as slickly produced as its ageist counterpart, it actually has something shocking...people who really CAN sing! Now that it's reached the latter stages of the competition, where the judges have been assigned the groups they'll be working with, things are starting to get even more interesting than with the Audition phase, though it was a lot more entertaining to watch than AI, with less of an emphasis on nutjobs and what I like to call the 'granola' contingent (fruits, nuts and flakes of every kind).

The only bone I have to pick with the producers was the pairing of judges to groups. Nicole Scherzinger, she of "Pussycat Dolls" infamy, would have been much better off with the groups, while L.A. Reid got the over-30's, Simon got the boys and Paula Abdul the girls. In fact, having Nicole and Enrique "More Auto-Tune, Please" Iglesias judge and work with the over-30's borders on being downright disrespectful. This category of contestants are old enough to have KIDS their age, not to mention that they probably own SHOES older than him or her.

But enough ranting about my personal biases regarding the show. Overall, do I think it's good, bad or indifferent? The answer is always subjective, and depends on your tolerance level these days for reality shows, competitive or otherwise.

Me? Warts, Simon and all, I don't think I'll be going back to American IDOL anytime soon. And if it weren't for Sharon Osborne and Piers Morgan, I probably would never give AMERICA'S GOT TALENT the time of day, either. Only time will tell, but personally, I believe that FACTOR may have what it needs to take everyone else down both ratings and quality-wise.