Simon Cowell on Taking the X Factor to America

By On 12/16/2009 · 32 Comments · In American Idol, Simon Cowell, X Factor

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Simon Cowell has personally confirmed to BBC Newsnight that he and his team are working on bringing   the UK show,   X Factor to America.

Simon also confirms that the show will take place in Los Angeles, rather than in Las Vegas as some news outlets have been reporting. The team considered Las Vegas, but the LA peeps (I’m guessing FOX) preferred LA as the location.

ETA: The UK Times   is reporting that Simon is considering dropping Idol, in favor of judging the X Factor when it comes to America. With declining ratings, and contestants who aren’t exactly barnstorming up the charts post Idol, could a Simon exit mean the end of American Idol?

Perez Hilton ran an item this morning, using Contact Music as the source, quoting Simon:

“I think the show will go to America. It has to go to America. There has to be an American version of the show. To not make The X Factor in the biggest market in the world would be crazy.”

I went off in search of the original quote, and found it in this full-length version of a recent interview Simon did with BBC Newsnight.

The interview is nearly 30 minutes long, and worth the listen if you have the time.   If you want to fast forward, the bits about the US version of X Factor come at about the 20 minute mark.

There have been several reports, citing unamed sources, that Simon is making the X Factor part of his negotions for his new American Idol contract with FOX (his current contract runs out in 2010).

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  • jammasta

    If he had done Billie Jean, it would’ve been the Michael Jackson version ‘” with dancing! Talk about WTFCook!

    That was actually kinda what I expected, but I didn’t really know David Cook back then (Yes, I expected David Cook to break out some amazing dance moves on stage XD). I hated Chris Cornell’s version of Billie Jean and it just led to an overrated performance from David Cook. That song was too untouchable for me. Now, Always Be My Baby? THAT was genius, an excellent performance from David Cook and a risk that paid off well, definitely THE best performance of Season 7 IMO. We would’ve missed that gem if he were on X Factor, but I think with the right retooling of X Factor, they could make it so someone as good as David Cook could’ve benefited, yet still kept many elements of X Factor format. But they’d also have to differentiate it from American Idol, so if they do bring it here they shouldn’t add TOO many elements.

    Also I hate myself for saying that I like a Miley Cyrus song but it kinda makes me feel better that it’s Joe McElderry singing it >_>. I like Joe.

    I’m still really torn on song choice. Yes, some contestants will be great song choosers, maybe not have the best voice. But there will be some contestants who kinda suck at song choice but have good voices, or they won’t mix up their songs. For example, David Archuleta. I admit that he was my favorite in Season 7, but it still would’ve been nice to see him mix it up a bit more. Case 2, Top 9 week in AI8. Except for Kris, Adam, and maybe Allison, it was pretty awful, yet it was possible the most open theme that season. And even then, as good as Adam and Allison were, I would say that Kris was the only one that night who even sounded current.

    There has to be a way of combining both advantages while doing a decent job of keeping out the negatives.

  • chessguy99

    I see X-Factor as perfect for the American market. The clashes between mentors and contestants, contestant smacktalking each other, the judge motivation because they have a stake in results, the tabloid coverage of contestants; all this will make for a sure hit with American viewers who have shown a craving for good drama-llama reality shows. The fact that it also contains singing is a bonus. I myself can’t wait.

  • jammasta

    Oh God, I completely forgot about some inevitable drama. Ugh.

    I hate drama on these shows. How I wish the media didn’t thrive on drama.

  • Incipit

    Chessguy, everything you wrote may very sadly turn out to be quite true – but everything you wrote is a nice summation of all the reasons I would never care to watch such a thing. The contestants who agree to such a set up are willing to hand over their individual preferences to be guided and marketed as someone, or something they are not. It’s the whole Deus ex Machina flavor that is off putting.

    Looks like the only people without a stake in the results of this Machiavellian X contest would be the consumers who are expected to support the resulting music, so the finalists can have an actual career, beyond the flash in the pan. They can’t all have Susan Boyle stories.

    If the consumers are willing to be entertained by a singing, dancing tabloid show – it would be a bit much to also expect to receive good, new music from artists who know who they are and what they want to say, considering the source. IMO, of course.

  • primeminister

    Well, it’s not like X Factor contestants are blowing up on the charts either.

  • butte009

    I myself am looking forward to it jumping the pond. I like the addition of groups and the performance/show aspect. Let’s give the SYTYCD alumni some more airtime! :)

    Maybe it’s written in Louis’ rulebook somewhere but I don’t see why the US XF contestants couldn’t have a say in song choice/arrangement. Didn’t Simon say he let Danyl and Jamie pick the song a few times? So for me it’s not a given that that option would go away. Frankly, not many AI contestants over the years have been able to do it well anyways (arrangements that is).

    I also think a UK poster had said in one of the previous performance threads that some XF contestants have played instruments in the past. It just so happened that none of this season’s contestants were so inclined. So again… I don’t foresee an issue or disadvantage. Many contestants just stand there for there performance (e.g. Stacey) so why not hold a guitar or play piano? No difference IMO.

    I didn’t see the XF judges as being any better or worse than AI. They have their own mentees so you knew they would pimp them over the other groups.

  • http://www.twilightslo.com Mateja

    LOL.

    Judges are also mentors, they pick songs for their contestants from the list. Usually they do that on Sunday morning. Contestant tries to sing a few songs, mentor listens and then decides.

    Danyl and Jamie had problems with their song choices because of Simon. Simon is a busy man, so he doesn’t have time to mentor his contestants properly himself. So he pays someone else to do his job as a mentor. That guy is Simon’s friend from Sony. Simon shows up on Friday (one day before the show) at rehearsals, to see how his acts are doing. If he is not happy with the song choice or performance, he changes the song. That’s why Danyl and Jamie complained so much. Then he let them to have a say, but really, they need mentor’s approval for everything.

    They have voice coaches, choreographer, and professional musicians to create the arrangements. They don’t have live band in a studio, I guess everything is pre-recorded somehow. Instruments are not exactly forbidden, but they have backing tracks. And, as Simon says, it’s a singing competition. They are looking for a popstar, someone who has singing and (possibly) performance skills. Adam would be perfect for X Factor. I think one or two contestants played instruments in the past, but it was probably once in the whole season…

    If you watched X Factor, judges don’t talk about song arrangements during their critiques. They sometimes critique each other’s song choices, but usually only singing, choreography, performance… They certainly don’t talk about artistry like Kara did this year on Idol.

    Oh and groups. They seem interesting, but they never win. Usually they don’t go very far. Especially girl groups. Boybands stay a little longer.

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