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Satchvai1 wrote:

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I think Idol has it over the other two because they use an age old adage: Keep it simple stupid.
X-Factor and The Voice are way too overproduced and contrived. I feel like I'm watching a Hollywood produced game show when I watch them but for some reason Idol comes across as more genuine. Though I'd never type that but in contrast, it is. Nigel's little power plays pale in comparison to the over the top scripting and bullshit drama X-Factor manufactures. The Voice started out good but the battle rounds were probably the most ignorant and boring things I've ever seen on a talent show. Gimmicks don't work, some shred of real vocal talent does.

I had high hopes at the beginning of the year with the two shows coming out but they just left me flat. 

Idol's format now is actually very dated, it keeps itself way too simple (that's why we got the tripe that was Season 9, or every single one of the final 2's performances in Season 10). You have a bunch of nigh inexperienced singers try to come up with huge artistic decisions for themselves in front of a national audience. That's why you get so many mediocre/terrible performances off of Idol in the finals stage because you have these kids who have no clue what they're doing. The contestants are too intimidated to really go balls out.

Meanwhile, the judges as they stand now are probably the most irrelevant set of opinions to ever sit on a table. You have Randy Jackson who for an entire decade has not uttered a single comprehensible line of dialogue, Steven Tyler, who's clearly just collecting a pay check and then Jennifer Lopez, a 'nice' judge with no foil.

Not only that, Idol tries so hard to be musically relevant, pretending that it's an accurate representation of the music industry when, as a glorified karaoke competition, it just isn't. It doesn't know how to manipulate its own format of being a nationally treasured star-making vehicle. It's like a giant cruise ship being steered by sailing school freshmen.

What The Voice claims to do is get rid of that by emphasizing the coaching aspect and focusing squarely on 'the voice'. Unfortunately, in the process, it becomes too gimmicky and too much about its celebrity coaches and less about the contestants who basically become pawns in a chess game played for publicity's sake. That's why its back half is so boring, we don't care about the people. It also suffers from the fact that it is completely just a karaoke competition with no room for real creativity.

The X Factor , on paper, is the perfect middle ground between the two. It takes unknown singers, pairs them up with proper mentors (that's why they have music moguls in the panel rather than just pop stars) and then gives them a story for the audience to connect with them more easily (hence the sob stories). All this set in what is pretty much a three ring circus. The X Factor, when done right (see the UK version), actually dares to be an accurate representation of the contemporary music industry, summarized for television. It's not necessarily good or artistically vindicated but it's a much more interesting and intriguing format than both The Voice and Idol.


I've already stated why it didn't really work for the US version much. In truth, a lot of this season felt like it was haphazardly put together. The way to fix it is simple:

-Get the Brittish editing team to train the Americans. Idol as a franchise actually makes sure that the different international editions follow a specific bible of how things are supposed to be run. that's why all the international Idols were so uniformly polished in terms of editing and cinematography. The X Factor should follow suit.

-Bring in an American Comedian as the host. As it stands the show is very brittish and that's part of the big disconnect between it and the american public. An American host though is just part of the solution. They have to be funny and clever to contrast the very serious and high stakes that the competition internally has. You need someone who can easily lighten the mood whenever things get sour between the judges. Kimmel or Ellen could probably make decent hosts for the show.

-Narrow down the age limit for the Boys and Girls category. Having those two categories range from ages 14 to 30 is too wide that you're going to be losing a lot of potential stars when you narrow it down to the final 14. This also makes the Overs category even more invalid because you have an even smaller field of marketable contestants. Bringing it down to 25, like the UK does is goldilocks.

-Open up the genres a bit. Bring in the singer-songwriters, the rock stars, the broadway inclined singers. You're looking for the X Factor not the r&b factor. Idol's greatest moments were whenever genres collided and brought us some memorable reworkings of popular songs.

-Dump Nicole. No explanation needed.

-Separate Paula and Simon. They don't have to sack Paula. All they have to do is have someone else sitting between them and let Paula be her own presence without the stupid Simon/Paula antics. That alone will make a huge difference.

-They need a fresh face as the fourth judge. Someone younger and with good, varied, musical taste. The younger age of the fourth judge could very easily keep the show relevant to its target demographic (that's why Cheryl and Tulisa were so successful in their respective seasons because they chose songs that were relevant)

^ The US X Factor is terrible by all accounts. It tried to come out as a phenomenon right out of the gate without working for it. If they started out more earnestly and focusing entirely on the talent rather than gimmicks and overproduction (ZOMG they audition in front of an audience! ZOMG they're 14! ZOMG rappers! ZOMG he's homeless!) it would have been far better received and then they could have come out as the big spectacle it wants to be coming into the second season. The UK version took 4 seasons at least to become the national obsession it is now, the US shouldn't have expected to be any different.