Well, this season of The X Factor is officially over. It had it's moments but obviously didn't do as well as pretty much anyone expected it to. When NBC announced that The Voice would be airing twice a year, most people realized that only one show would come out a winner after the fall season. However, most people (including myself) assumed that the reigning singing competition would be the one that had just been infused with a major dose of Britney Spears. So, where does Mr. Cowell go from here? Lucky for him, Fox renewed X Factor before the live shows — where the ratings took a turn for the worse.
To help him out, we have compiled a list of what to add and what to remove to finally make this show a success next year.
Dear Simon,
1. iTunes is important For some reason, you decided to put the contestants' performances on iTunes but never once advertised that they were available there. Instead, Mario Lopez would always instruct viewers to log on to The X Factor's official website if they wanted to download the performances. Almost everyone has an iTunes account, so why not just lead them there? There's a reason that the Apple service is the number one music-selling service in history.
2. Fire Khloé and Britney Sure, Britney added some buzz when the season had just started, but producers should really test how a judge would mentor acts and critique in a live setting before hiring them. Britney easily had the most-talented group in the competition, yet pretty much sabotaged all of them by dressing Beatrice up like a hobo, switching Diamond from Selena Gomez to Jennifer Hudson every other week, and just ignoring that Arin was even there. The only person she didn't completely ruin was Carly Rose, and that's just because Carly was probably busy giving Britney career advice. Plus, when put in front of a camera on a live show, Ms. Spears could hardly find it in herself to say more than 4 words per contestant! Then, when it comes to the Kardashian, it's quite simple: she is the most awkward host in the history of television. I didn't think it could get any worse after last year's disaster that was Steve Jones, but at least he was fun to watch. Khloé wasn't even painful to watch, she was just plain old annoying.
3. Only give the contestants make-overs if they are necessary We watched CeCe go from someone we loved to hate (and would therefore watch) to a bleached-blonde, fake-sounding goodie, goodie. Jennel's dyed hair just made it look like she was wearing a horrible, Halloween costume wig.
4. Keep Demi She was by far the most-entertaining and most-honest judge on the panel. She was fun and she wasn't afraid to speak her mind. Most importantly, she was the only reason that I and everyone I knew watched the show. Now, be sure to give her a lesson on how to better mentor her contestants so that we don't end up with her sitting alone at the judges' table again next season. Just whatever you do, don't get rid of her.
5. Only have one CeCe in the final 12 Contestants like CeCe are the reason people choose to watch this show over The Voice and American Idol. You seem to have realized that this season, but you went a little overboard. Instead of having one entertainingly crazy contestant, you had four. Lyric 145 came out and rapped about Mary Poppins, CeCe became Ke$ha times 10, Paige was just all over the place in her crazy performances, and (every other week) Diamond seemed to become obsessed with neon colors and balloons. We Americans like crazy entertainment, but not that much.
6. Replace L.A. and Britney with people that you know have chemistry I heard a rumor that Katy Perry had turned down an offer to judge this season, and I was crushed. Her guest-spot on Idol a few years back was the best hour of television that I had seen in a long time. She was funny, she wasn't afraid to speak her mind, and (most importantly) she had chemistry with the other judges. If you can't get Katy to fill Britney's spot, then go for someone like Rihanna. First, make sure that she doesn't suffer from Spears Syndrome of being a great performer and entertainer but awful in a live setting. Next, get someone fun to sit next to her. I know it probably wouldn't be possible, but my number one pick would have to be Louis Tomlinson. He's fun, he knows what it's like to be super-famous, and he would bring something to The X Factor that other shows like this don't have: an alumni on the panel. He would be able to say "Oh, I remember this week's theme when the boys and I did it, it was my absolute favorite." and things like that.
7. Keep the leaderboard Many viewers are saying that it takes away the element of surprise, but it gives viewers a reason to watch the results show other than just to see who goes home.
8. Let Mario go solo It was very obvious that Mr. Lopez could run the show just fine by himself, and he does not at all need an inexperienced female at his side interrupting everything he says.
9. Do more things like the red carpet on the finale Those little things make The X Factor feel more like an event than a television show.
10. Keep the trends coming! Now that Nielsen is partnering with Twitter to provide social rankings, it is more important than ever to make sure you are constantly on the internet. When the acts give hints during the week as to what they'll be singing, make their fan-bases trend before giving the hint.
11. Other than that, keep doing what you're doing
