X Factor back this week with female-majority panel
Are you ready for Simon and his all-girl panel? Season 3 of The X Factor beats the fall premiere stampede with a two-night debut at 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday on Fox.
This season the judges/mentors will be Simon Cowell and three younger women.
Gone are last season’s Britney Spears and L.A. Reid, and joining the returning Demi Lovato will be “two new superstar judges,” Kelly Rowland and Paulina Rubio.
Superstars? Credit the Fox publicists with institutional hyperbole.
Fox publicity adds, “Simon Cowell is one lucky man to be working with such talented, stunning female phenoms!”
Stunning female phenoms. Folks actually get paid to write this stuff.
It’s fair to say that while a comfortable success by any standard, The X Factor is far from the dominating, stunning production that Cowell promised when he bailed out of American Idol in 2010. The series has struggled from the beginning to find the right combination of judges and format to make it must-see TV.
Season 3 also begins with host changes. Fortunately, someone woke up and realized that Khloe Kardashian may be many things, but a functioning co-host is not one of them. The personable and dimpled Mario Lopez ( Saved By the Bell) will handle those duties solo this season.
If there’s a single paramount criticism about X Factor it’s that the show is too celebrity-driven, to the detriment of the talent.
“Will their judging styles meld together or will there be dissent amongst the panel?” Fox asks. “Only time will tell!” Note the exclamation point. Too much emphasis on the judges is one problem, but the main concern is that audiences are too saturated with singing competitions to care as much as in the golden age of American Idol.
Last season’s Idol finale had a stunning drop in viewers of more than 40 percent from the season closer of 2012. The total viewership of 14.3 million was the first time the show was below 20 million since it began in 2002.
Have you been watching X Factor? If so, do you even recall who won the first two seasons? To refresh your memory, Melanie Amaro won Season 1 and country singer Tate Stevens took the crown last year. I had to look them up, too. Although superficially a clone of Idol, The X Factor does have enough tweaks in its format to argue the point.
The season begins with the judges traveling the nation (like Idol) searching for musical talent 12 years old or older. Idol contestants must be between 15 and 28.
Auditions took place in the spring and were held in Los Angeles, New Orleans, Denver, Charleston, S.C., and Long Island, N.Y.
Unlike Idol, on X Factor, the talent can be solo acts or vocal groups.
Idol wannabees parade before the judges only. On X Factor, contestants audition in front of the four judges and a live audience of thousands. Fox explains that the live audience is “a quick test of the vocal ability, charisma and stage presence it takes to become a global superstar or breakout music act and win a recording contract with Syco/Sony Music.”
Global superstar? Like Amaro and Stevens?
The contestants who survive the first auditions will be divided into four categories: Boys, Girls, Over 25s and Groups. Each category will be mentored by one of the show’s four judges.
Yes, that does sound like NBC’s The Voice. Or maybe The Voice sounds like X Factor. It doesn’t really matter.
As with The Voice, X Factor features competition among the hopefuls and among the judges. The judges may have their input, but America eventually gets to decide the winner.
In addition to winners Stevens and Amaro, Fox brags that The X Factor has discovered “several other breakout stars.” They include Emblem3, Fifth Harmony, Carly Rose Sonenclar, Rachel Crow and Chris Rene.
Expect more guest mentors and special performances this season. It’s always difficult to judge how much guest mentoring is actually going on. It’s usually just an excuse to have a guest singer on. Last year’s guests were Justin Bieber, Marc Antony, will.i.am and Nick Jonas, with special performances from One Direction, Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys, Bruno Mars, Leann Rimes, Pitbull and Little Big Town.
THE JUDGES
Here’s a quick look at this season’s judge/mentors.
Simon Cowell, 53, is a recording executive and producer who founded Syco Entertainment in 2002. He was an American Idol judge from 2002 to 2010.
Demi Lovato, 21, is a former Disney child actress turned pop singer.
Paulina Rubio, 42, is a successful Hispanic singer who has sold more than 20 million records.
Kelly Rowland, 32, is a solo artist and former member of Destiny’s Child. Also in that group was someone named Beyonce. Rowland served as a judge on Season 8 of British X Factor.