I've always wondered about this. Simon Cowell's acerbic putdowns are arguably the reason a lot of people watch American Idol, but while his British fans can catch-up with Idol a few days after its US broadcast on ITV2, do his American fans likewise keep tabs on the UK's X Factor -- and Britain's Got Talent, for that matter? Or is Cowell essentially off the US radar for six-months of the year? Unless Scottish virgins become superstars, obviously...
Are there any American fans of Cowell out there who could enlighten me? I know X Factor isn't broadcast in the US, but do some of you download episodes via torrent? Or do you watch YouTube for a fix of Cowell? Or maybe you just have no interest in Simon Cowell unless he's passing judgement on American singers? You xenophobes, you.
And to any cosmopolitan Americans who watch Idol and X Factor, which do you prefer? X Factor has more judges and different singing categories, whereas Idol is essentially stuck with the UK's original Pop Idol format of the early-'00s. Is Idol's format somehow purer while X Factor just feels needlessly convoluted, though? Or is X Factor actually more complex and Idol just bland and shopworn nowadays? Maybe it's just natural that your native show feels better, because culturally everyone you know is aware of it, and discussing it the next day? But try and think in an unbiased way. Louis Walsh vs. Randy Jackson? Ryan Seacrest vs. Dermot O'Leary? Discuss.
Personally, I've always had the impression Cowell prefers doing X Factor. From what I've seen, his fellow judges are more engaging and he's not the sole voice of reason. He just can't dominate the show quite as much. It's also telling that he's been slowly trying to make Idol resemble X Factor as much as he can, without altering the format for legal reasons -- mainly by axing Paula Abdul for a sexier replacement (a la dumping Sharon Osbourne for Cheryl Cole) But, it does seem that the American contestants are more gifted entertainers, by and large. The standard's generally higher. That said, two of the world's biggest talent show success stories have come from the UK: Leona Lewis and Susan Boyle. The closest the US has come to that level of success is Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson. Okay, Boyle's something of a viral gimmick for the Twitter-age, but I'm betting Leona's career will last longer and be twice as interesting than Kelly's.
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
