"American Idol," "The Voice" and "The X Factor" are the three biggest singing competitions on U.S. TV, but it now it has been confirmed that only "The X Factor" pursued Britney Spears as a judge on the show.
Fox is the U.S. TV network for "American Idol" on "The X Factor" U.S., while NBC is the U.S. TV network for "The Voice" U.S.
After months of negotiations, Spears replaced fired judge Paula Abdul on "The X Factor'" U.S. in May 2012. The other "X Factor" U.S. judges are "The X Factor" executive producer Simon Cowell, Epic Records chairman/CEO Antonio "L.A." Reid and Demi Lovato.
Spears has never been on "American Idol," and her name has never come up in reports of celebrities who have been in talks to be a judge on "American Idol" during the various changes in the show's judging panel. In July 2012, Mariah Carey replaced Jennifer Lopez as a judge on "American Idol."
"American Idol" didn't want Spears, and neither did "The Voice."
NBC Entertainment president of alternative and late-night programming Paul Telegdy has now confirmed that the network would never want Spears to be a judge on "The Voice," but he implies that NBC did want Carey for "The Voice" before Christina Aguilera was hired for the job.
Here is an excerpt from an interview that Telegdy did with The Hollywood Reporter:
THR: Had you tried to get Mariah on NBC?
Telegdy: We made no secret of the fact that we think Mariah is an extraordinary singer, and her husband [Nick Cannon] is the host of AGT, but there are no hard feelings with Mariah for doing Idol. She's a great person, wonderful company, really fun and an exceptional talent. They should be humbled, delighted and grateful that she's doing the show.
THR: Would you shower similar praise on The X Factor's Britney Spears?
Telegdy: I think people's curiosity around Britney will always be there. Will it be around her as a panelist on one of these TV shows? That depends on whether she's good at it. She would never have been on a list of people to participate on The Voice, but that doesn't mean she's not a valid choice for another show. So this is not a "Telegdy Says Britney Couldn't Do The Voice" headline. I just think Britney is a different booking, not a singing booking.
NBC and Cowell (who is an executive producer of NBCs "America's Got Talent") have found out the hard way that having a big celebrity name on a show's judging panel does not always equal higher ratings if the show's viewers do not accept the judge on the panel. In 2012, Howard Stern replaced Piers Morgan as a judge on "America's Got Talent," but since Stern has been on the show, Nielsen Media Research reports that "America's Got Talent" ratings have gone down by a combined 11 percent for the Tuesday ad Wednesday episodes, compared to the show's ratings in 2011.
I have said all along that it's a terrible decision to hire Spears as a judge on "The X Factor," because her lip-synching, bimbo reputation is very polarizing to "X Factor" viewers, many of whom say they won't watch "The X Factor" as long as she is on the show.
Spears, just like Stern, has a large fan base and can be controversial. But the people who have seen Spears and Stern as talent-show judges say that they are very boring, which is even worse for TV than being controversial. While Stern may dazzle on the radio, and Spears may dazzle on stage, that doesn't mean that TV viewers will respond well to them as talent-show judges.
Although Spears' presence on "The X Factor" may initially bring in viewers who are curious to see how she does on the show, it's pretty obvious that she's going to flop during the live episodes, when they can't creatively edit her vapid personality. Less than a month before Season 2 "The X Factor" U.S. premieres on September 12, 2012, more people on the Internet are talking about what Spears is wearing in her Twitter photos than they are expressing excitement to see her as a judge on the show. That basically sums up what kind of appeal she has, which is a big red warning flag for the people who are hoping that Spears will bring in blockbuster ratings for "The X Factor."
Now that the Emmy-nominated "The Voice" U.S. will be televised during the same months as "The X Factor" U.S. (after "The Voice" was initially televised from February to May), the difference between these two shows will become even more obvious. "The Voice" has Aguilera, a singer whose talent is widely respected whose feisty presence on the show has a lot of people tuning in to see what she will say and do next, whether they personally like Aguilera or not. And then there's bland, robotic Spears. It doesn't take a genius to see which show will get higher ratings.
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