Simon Cowell has cleaned house at "The X Factor" - with a fire hose. Reports in rapid succession Monday night had host Steve Jones, then judges Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul not returning for next fall's second season of the Cowell-produced Fox show.
“I won’t be hosting next seasons X Factor which is a shame but I can’t complain as I’ve had a great time,” Jones posted on Twitter. “Good luck to everyone on the show.”A source in Scherzinger's
camp told E! News that the decision to leave the show was the singer's.The purge seems to answer the question of exactly how angry Cowell was that "The X Factor," while quite successful in its first season last fall, fell millions of viewers short of his stated expectations.
It will also inevitably launch speculation about who could provide the spark Cowell clearly thinks the show needs.
Some of that speculation is bound to start with Mariah Carey, a longtime Cowell friend whom Cowell said last summer would have been one of the original judges if she hadn't been pregnant at the time the show was filming.Cowell's house-cleaning leaves only two of the five original primary players standing: himself and fellow judge L.A. Reid, who at some point had to be looking over his shoulder.The shocker was Abdul, Cowell's long-time sparring partner and apparent kindred singing spirit from their years together as judges on "American Idol."
While Scherzinger and Jones had both gotten mixed reviews for their performances, there seemed to be a consensus that Abdul was just what Cowell thought he'd hired. As a mentor and a judge, she was forced to be more decisive than her Sunny Sally persona on "Idol," but she and Cowell were still regular partners in banter.What the shakeup really suggests is that Cowell was far more upset than anyone was letting on over the size of "The X Factor" audience. Before the show launched last summer, he said his goal was to top the audience for "Idol," which averaged more than 20 million viewers in each of its first 10 seasons. The season that just started has dipped below that a bit.Cowell, however, suggested that anything below 20 million for "The X Factor" would be
disappointing."The X Factor" started and ended with about 12.5 million weekly viewers — not only falling well below "Idol," but at times trailing "The Voice," an NBC music talent show that launched last spring with a similar mentoring format and far less promotion.Since the end of the season of "The X Factor," Cowell has calmly said several times that his expectations were too high. He said he hadn't decided what moves to make.Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly went a step further to TV critics this month when he said "there will be changes," but said they weren't tied to ratings."If it did twice the rating, [Cowell] would still change it," said Reilly. "He's relentless in that way."Reilly also declared Fox loves "The X Factor."
"I'm thrilled with the fact that the show has helped provide us with one of the strongest falls we've had in our history," he said. "I love it."Cowell presumably loves it, too. But he clearly sees ways he could love it a whole lot more, and they don't seem to include Steve, Nicole or Paula.
Kim Kardashian wears lingerie with new locks
Kim Kardashian wanted to show the world her new hairdo after dyeing her locks a lighter shade.But it most likely wasn’t the big hair they were looking at after the reality star posted a series of photos to her Twitter account.The 31-year-old was shooting a campaign for the Kardashian Kollection lingerie line, and she made sure she was the perfect advert for the range as she posed for her Twitter snaps in nothing but a coral coloured bra. Kim amped up the sex appeal by posting a photo of herself wearing just the underwear, with the caption: ‘Photo shoot fresh! All about corals for spring swimwear.’
She then sent an almost identical but slightly less revealing snap of herself in an untied fluffy white bathrobe, with her hair partially covering her cleavage.The second shot was accompanied by the
words: ‘Last shot of the day! On set of our Kardashian Kollection for Sears shoot!’But while her Twitter followers would have been
words: ‘Last shot of the day! On set of our Kardashian Kollection for Sears shoot!’But while her Twitter followers would have been
