Whether you like it or not, X-Factor has officially announced a second season pick-up. Even with ratings that come nowhere near Simon Cowell's threshold of success, the numbers are still good enough in its ever-changing time slot to warrant a second chance. The show is nowhere near perfect, but could easily do four things to be a much more watchable show. Does anyone else remember the first season of America's Got Talent? That's equal parts caused by the years since it aired and the lackluster production. It is possible to do major or minor tweaks between seasons and actually expand upon the initial audience.
Number 1: Turn On the Lights
The stage is very dark during the performances. Too dark. The groups that wound up in the bottom two in the first voting results episode were encased in darkness, like a living musical nightmare. What horribly dark and soul-gutting songs were they performing? "Rhythm Nation," "Kids in America," and "Party Rock Anthem." How ghastly.
If we could see the performers, it would be easier to relate to the performances. It's not a new issue to the live shows, either; the pop-up touring stage for the auditions was solid black from top to bottom. Some contestants melted into the backdrop, which does nothing to create relatability.
Being able to see the talent lets us judge and connect to it. Just turn those lights up past 20% and we're good to go.
Number 2: Replace Nicole Scherzinger
Nicole Scherzinger was the inexplicable replacement for Cheryl Cole, an X-Factor UK veteran who actually knows how to discuss music. Rumors suggest she was fired for her accent, which was perfectly understandable in the audition episodes she appeared in. Nicole was hired to be a co-host on the show, not judge. Anyone who watched the first two seasons of The Sing-Off knows why she was not instantly hired to judge and mentor.
Nicole, charged with the most experienced group, has gone with horribly irrelevant song choices seven out of seven times in two live shows. She is consistently criticized for her taste and staging and mocked for her ridiculous comments. For example, rather than critiquing above embedded group InTENsity*, she likened them to a perfect little Halloween pumpkin patch and may have come close to being invited to sit on a chair by Chris Hansen.
The fact is, at this point, Nicole is outclassed by her fellow judges. Simon Cowell does the basis of this show--mentoring and grooming artists for pop careers--as his actual job. So does LA Reid. Paula Abdul has worked for years as an in-demand choreographer and knows what works onstage. Nicole...won her fame on one of the first talent reality shows, Popstars, and was eventually hired as the one who could sing in The Pussycat Dolls. Her solo album has been delayed for years because no one can make any sense of the direction she wants to go in.
To be perfectly fair, Cheryl Cole also won her fame on a reality show. The difference is that she proved herself capable of the judging/mentoring job her first season on the UK's X-Factor by winning the show. Then she won again the next year. Then she actually picked interesting and dynamic performers who got quite far in the contest on her third season.
The show would instantly improve if they apologized to Cheryl Cole, offered her a raise, and let her take over the Over 30 group. I know they won't. Let's just say Fox should take the lead from their UK counterpart and be willing to fire judges between seasons.
Number 3: Live Tracks
There's already a lip-syncing controversy on X-Factor. The defense is every other performance show does this (lie) so why shouldn't they? That's a bad attitude to take.
What's even worse is the 1980s Casio-sounding synth backing tracks for the majority of the contestants. Reality shows are supposed to be cheap. It's not that expensive, compared to the judges' salaries and the cost of all that lighting,** to hire out a small band of musicians for the shows. Instead, contestants who are supposed to be the total package are able to get away with lip-syncing or have to fight against really poorly-produced backing tracks. You would fail a college-level MIDI course for turning in tracks that sound that plastic for a final project.
Ditch the backing tracks and get with the live musicians. Everyone else is doing it.
Number 4: No False Drama
Stacy Francis is lying about her background. Stereo Hoggz, InTENsity, and Lakoda Rayne only exist as groups because they joined together for the first audition or were forced together after the first round of callbacks. Dexter Haygood claims he was so disgusted with how he was edited on the show that he asked his mentor to eliminate him. We know nothing true about the vast majority of the contestants that we can relate to. Instead, we hear false claims of not working for twelve years as a professional singer or how four young women want to get frozen yogurt after a performance.
As much as I hate exploiting hardships for ratings, if the alternative is an elaborate web of lies and artifice designed to favor or hinder particular contestants, I'd rather hear nothing at all. Let them just be manufactured artists who answer the same bs questions regular pop acts do and end it there. No sob stories. No demands for a private bathroom. No lies about starring in regional, West End, and Broadway productions, performing at major birthday parties for Scientology figures, and having multiple stabs at a professional recording career in the past (some of which were quite successful).
We don't get to find out if [next pop sensation] was bullied in high school until after they prove themselves successful as an artist. Why do we care if a reality show contestant makes up drama in their life to get the judges to like her even when she over-sings every song? Let them sink or swim on their merits as an artist. Applaud their previous success and ask them to reflect on why they haven't become a $5million recording artist already. Just don't let them make stuff up (or make entire groups up) for the sake of drama.
Thoughts?
*Actual name. **It takes a lot of money to create a vortex to the darkest regions of outer space with hundreds upon hundreds of professional grade lights.