Britney Spears is done with X-Factor USA. It’s official. She’s been kicked to the curb like a lonely puppy. The show worked with her on the judging panel – she was a good fit – but she wasn’t what Simon Cowell expected and/or wanted. According to a source for Us Weekly, “He wanted crazy Britney, but he got boring Britney.” And boring she was. The public also expected infamous Britney meltdowns and umbrella-whacking, but in reality, the star was as drab as chipped paint.
Insiders revealed, “Britney will get the boot. Producers wanted her for the long haul, but it isn’t working.” The pop star was paid an estimated $15 million for a six month stint on the show, but producers feel that she didn’t live up to potential and did not really have any return on investment. “They paid all that for her to say ‘amazing’ and offer half-claps,” insiders quipped.
X-Factor was brought to the shores of the USA in the hope of attracting as much attention and hype as the UK version, but instead, the show came off as contrived, artificial, and unbalanced. Nicole Scherzinger, Paula Abdul, Cheryl Cole, L.A. Reid, and now Spears, have all been replaced, quit, and/or left the show for greener pastures. This massive, game-changing judging panel shake-up has caused many fans of the show to tune out and leave it to its own devices. Cowell, who initially wanted Spears to be a permanent member of the judging panel, said in a conference call to reporters in October, “[She had been] a lot better than everybody thought… She’s very engaged… She has been, I think, a very, very good judge.”
Well why the sudden turnaround then? Dollars, dollars, and more dollars. If a judge does not live up to potential, they’ll receive a slice of the guillotine pie. X-Factor’s budget is one of the largest budgets in the world of reality television, and if a judge isn’t able to balance out and return the investment, they need to make room for someone who can. How they rate the popularity of the judges is anyone’s guess, but if one takes a look at popular opinion polls, Spears’ popularity dwindled as the season continued – a sign that she’s on her way out.
We’re unsure what the landscape of the future X-Factor looks like, but we are certain that if Cowell isn’t able to stick to a family of judges, the show will face the guillotine of cancellation very, very soon. It’s really getting annoying.
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