Simon Cowell’s X-Factor USA has been canceled after three seasons.
X-Factor USA never really caught on with American television audiences, so Simon Cowell is heading back to England, after failing to make the show relevant in the United States. Cowell had predicted before the start of the first season, that X-Factor USA would draw 20 million viewers.
Ratings
The ratings only became worse, with each season as evidenced by the finale ratings for each season:
Season One – 12.57 million
Season Two – 9.65 million
Season Three – 6.45 million
The handwriting was on the wall for the show, after the ratings fell 6 million from the first finale to the third finale.
Judges
The judging panel changed each season, with Cowell being the only judge on the panel for all three seasons.
The other three judges for each season:
Season One – L.A. Reid, Nicole Scherzinger, Paula Abdul
Season Two – L.A. Reid, Britney Spears, Demi Lovato
Season Three – Paulino Rubio, Kelly Rowland, Demi Lovato
Nicole Scherzinger may have been the worst judge, ever in any singing competition, when her indecision forced the panel into a deadlock, which caused Rachel Crow to leave the show. She was dismissed from the panel, after Season One, but amazingly was made a judge on the British version of X-Factor.
Hosts
Each season saw changes in the hosts for X-Factor USA:
Season One – Steve Jones
Season Two – Mario Lopez, Khloe Kardashian
Season Three – Mario Lopez
Steve Jones in Season One was the most ill at ease host I have ever seen on a television show. He became visibly upset, when he was trying to rush the judges, when making their decisions.
Mario Lopez could have done fine in Season Two, without Khloe Kardashian, who seemed out-of-place on the show. It was evident that Cowell saw that Lopez didn’t need any assistance, as he let Lopez host Season Three alone.
Winners
Season One – Melanie Amaro was announced as the first winner of X-Factor USA in December of 2011, but here it is February of 2014 and her debut album has never been released. If I remember correctly the Season One winner was supposed to receive a $5 million recording contract. Now it is doubtful if she will ever release her debut album, with the show no longer in production.
Season Two – Tate Stevens unlike Amaro had his debut album released only four months, after being declared the Season Two winner. His album has received rave reviews at Amazon.com with 63 reviewers rating his album, with five stars while only two reviewers gave it one star. However, the album is not selling well at Amazon and is currently ranked as of today, as 27,339th in music sales.
Season Three – Alex and Sierra were the last winners in the history of X-Factor USA, but it will be interesting to see, if they ever release a debut album.
X-Factor USA winners have not made much of an impact on the American music scene and most people probably couldn’t even tell you, who won in any of the seasons.
Singing competition shows should be measured, by whether the winners become household names and go on to be recording stars. X-Factor USA has failed miserably, when it comes to getting the names of their winners, to the point that American Idol winners have of being instantly recognized.
American Idol, while its ratings are trending downward still has the most name recognition of either X-Factor USA or The Voice. Even Cee Lo Green of The Voice has conceded, that The Voice has not launched a big name on the music scene as of yet. Nobody will take The Voice seriously until one of their winners reaches the status of American Idol winners like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood.
Some American Idol contestants, who didn’t win their season have gone on to be successful like Jennifer Hudson. She finished 7th on American Idol during Season 3 and went on to release two Gold records and win an Oscar for her role in Dreamgirls and won a Grammy for her debut album Jennifer Hudson.
Chris Daughtry also has been a successful recording star, despite finishing 4th in Season 7 of American Idol. His debut album Daughtry has sold close to 5 million and it has gone quadruple platinum.
When The Voice can produce stars like American Idol it will gain credibility as a star-making singing competition.
In summary, X-Factor USA tried to match the popularity of American Idol and The Voice and fell far short of that goal.
The Fox television network only has two hours of programming each night, so they couldn’t afford to let X-Factor take up 3 or 4 hours a week, on their network. Fox network is probably happy to concentrate, on American Idol now and try to stem the loss in viewers of that show.
Nostalgia and Now 