The X Factor U.S.A. debuts tonight on FOX

[SuperMillionaire]

Longtime adversaries Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul return on the successor to American Idol, The X Factor. The other two judges are Nicole Scherzinger (from the Pussycat Dolls) and L. A. Reid, and the host is Steve Jones, who also hosts the U.K. version.

Here's how the format differs from American Idol:

1: $5 Million prize.
2: No upper age limit. You must be at least 12 to enter, though.
3: Singers will be divided into different categories: males between 12 and 30; females between 12 and 30; individuals (both genders) over 30; and groups (yes, it's not just for solo singers anymore), with each judge being assigned as a mentor to one of the four categories.

Let's see how this show does in the ratings tonight at 8 PM (EST) on FOX.

[Del Murder]

Too many singing or dancing competition shows out there. This one is particularly hilarious. Cowell leaves a successful singing show only to come back to do another singing show on the same network. He brings Paula Abdul with him too for good measure.

I bet if Fox had their way it would be 24/7 singing competition shows.

ABC is not much worse. Dancing with the Stars is, for some reason, on for TWO HOURS on BOTH Monday and Tuesday. Do people really need 4 hours a week of this garbage?

[Shiny]

Do people really need 4 hours a week of this garbage?

They must because neither of those shows have been canceled yet.

[Jiro]

I'm surprised they have celebrities left for that dancing one. As for X Factor... ugh no actually I don't watch any of these shows. I can't sing and a lot of the people they have can't either, and then it gets all serious and they only end up releasing one album before disappearing into the void.

[Del Murder]

Do people really need 4 hours a week of this garbage?

They must because neither of those shows have been canceled yet.

Thank you Captain Obvious. McDonald's is still open and crack is still on the streets. Do people need that stuff too?

Jiro, 'celebrity' is very loosely applied when it comes to that show.

[Hollycat]

Is this anything like the X Files?

[Freya]

I love xfactor you jerks

[Loony BoB]

I like the UK version. I'm not sure about the American version - Simon aside, the judges are pretty boring. Paula is a nutter, I guess, but she doesn't appeal to me in any way. Not sure what I don't like about her, but yeah, I don't like it about her LA Reid was boring, which was a shame. Nicole is a waste of space (they seriously should have stuck with Cheryl, as much as she may be overrated by the UK media, she's far better than Nicole) who seemed incapable of doing anything but "going with the flow" amongst the judges. She only disagreed with the rest of the judges once. Which also means the rest of the judges always agreed, which is even worse. I like it when the judges all like different things and therefore often have differing opinions.

Still, the X-Factor - for me, at least, and basing on UK X-Factor experience - gets better after the auditions. I don't know about the finals, but I do like the "boot camp" and "judges houses" bits. I watch it with Danielle so we can judge all the singers (and judges) as if we knew what we were talking about. Which we obviously do.

I would like X-Factor a lot more if it didn't involve them releasing a single at Christmas time. In fact, I'd probably like X-Factor a lot more if none of them actually released a single afterwards. I like the show, but I'm not overly fond of the resulting music released by the finalists. I always find they ruin what was good about the acts. Or I just like the acts, but not their music. Stuff like that.

I'd watch the US X-Factor if they had better judges. I only like Simon of those four. And the host is boring. Maybe I'll watch later on, or watch next year, and see if there is any progress.

[Rocket Edge]

I'd watch the X-Factor shows if it wern't for the completely over the top sob stories people come out with before they go on and sing. Some major face-palm moments like. I didn't think it was possible, but from what I've seen from the American version it has gotten considerably worse.

[SuperMillionaire]

Wow, we haven't gotten a post in this thread for a while...

Anyway, the season finale was last night, and the winner was Melanie Amaro.