Oops, they did it again: “The X Flop”

Over the summer, Fox signed Britney Spears and Demi Lovato (who?) to be judges on The X Factor to boost the show’s disappointing ratings from season one. Well, it didn’t exactly get off to a good start now, didn’t it? Ratings for X Factor’s second season premiere drew a 3.4/10 in adults 18-49, with only 8.73 million viewers, according to info obtained from TV Media Insights.

Breaking it down per hour, Factor was dinged in the first sixty minutes by NBC’s competing The Voice, which drew 10.90 million and a 3.4/12, while Factor had a 2.8/9 and 7.46 million viewers. But in the second hour, Factor soared up 36 percent with a 3.8/11 opposite the season finale of America’s Got Talent, which drew 11 million viewers in the first hour and a 2.9 demo rating.

While a 3.4 is good – and it beat the finale of Talent in the first hour, Factor as a whole was down 23 percent from its 2011 premiere and should have done better, given the hype of Britney Spears coming on board as a judge. Thursday night’s episode did worse, with a 3.1 rating, with the fourth season premiere of Glee outperoming its lead-in at 3.3.

If there’s a lesson to be learned, is viewers don’t watch for the judges – they watch for the “talent”. Isn’t that right, Simon? The idiot was so busy hyping Britney and the other  whats-her-name judge, he hasn’t even named a host of the show yet! (even though I’m a fan of a lot of things British, yours truly is NOT a fan of Mr. Cowell, who should be deported at the first opportunity someone gets to do so.)

The bottom line is, there are a glut of these singing competition shows, and the audience is finally tiring of them. And besides, who remembers the winners of these shows nowadays? In fact, does anyone remember who won The X Factor last year?

(Pssst… the answer is here. And yes, I knew before I looked it up.)