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Could 'The X Factor' reunite Simon and Paula?
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One of the great TV comedy duos of the past decade could potentially be on their way to a reunion.We speak, of course, of Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul, who amused each other and America for eight seasons of "American Idol." And the vehicle for their re-teaming could, just maybe, be the American version of Cowell's hit U.K. show "The X Factor."
FOX just announced the show at the TV Critics Association press tour on Monday (Jan. 11), and it won't be on the air until the fall of 2011. But there's already a report from TMZ that Cowell has already reached out to Abdul about being a judge on the show. He also seemed open to the idea of working with her again at the TCA session announcing the show.
"I've gone on record -- I adore Paula," Cowell said. "Whatever happens, I will be working with her again in some capacity, because I miss her. ... You're just going to have to watch this space."
Of course, he also said this in discussing how "The X Factor" differs from "Idol": "There's no upper age limit on this show. You can literally be a hundred years old -- so Paula could audition."
"The X Factor" will have four judges; one of them will be Cowell, who's also executive producing the show. Whether Abdul really wants to work for FOX again after her less-than-amicable departure from "American Idol" last year remains to be seen.
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So the X-Factor is essentially going to be Fox's version of "America's Got Talent"? Or is the X-Factor solely a singing competition?
Iggy, "The X Factor" (Simon Cowell is creator, executive producer, and judge) was started in 2004. It's basically a singing competition, but much more involved than Idol (check Wiki for more info).
I'm so happy Simon is quitting Idol to be on X Factor. I hope Paula jins in too. :)
X-Factor is not like America's Got Talent...X-Factor is a singing competition only.
Here's some background: In 2001, a show began in the UK called Pop Idol, created by Simon Fuller. The next year the show was introduced to the U.S. as American Idol. Both shows featured Simon Cowell as one of the judges. Pop Idol skipped the 2002 year, then came back in 2003 and was subsequently dropped from the schedule.
So, Simon Cowell started his own UK show in 2004 called The X-Factor. It was similar to Pop Idol, but there are no age restrictions on the contestants like there were/are on Pop Idol and American Idol.
America's Got Talent is a spin-off of a show called Britain's Got Talent. Although it's another judging talent show, it's not restricted to just singing.
Expect to see The X-Factor with both Simon and Paula as two of the judges. Simon is already filthy rich from The X-Factor being run in many other countries (23 at last count), so there was no big rush for him to bring The X-Factor to America. However, I believe that Fox's refusal to pay Paula what she deserved was Simon's last straw with American Idol.
American Idol will continue, but will fall from it's #1 rating and will slowly fade away. Simon Cowell is the main reason that people watch the show, and those people will migrate to watching The X-Factor instead (especially if Paula is a judge).
If the American X-Factor is true to the British version the singers will be in one of 4 categories: Boys, Girls, Groups or Over 25.
Each judge also mentors one of the categories when they do the live shows.
If you want to know what is like download some episodes from the internet.
I hope that Paula isn't one of the judges.
I've longed maintained that Idol should've got rid of Paula, Randy and Seacrest (in addition to Dunkelman) after S1 and rotated the 2 judges every year with only Simon being permanent. I'd have been ok with a permanent host, but not Seacrest.