Breaking up may have been the best thing for American Idol and Simon Cowell both.
Idol did just fine this past season without Simon. But, judging from Wednesday's two-hour premiere of The X Factor, leaving Idol will benefit its former judge, as well.
However, Simon clearly doesn't have an original idea in his head, unless you count trying to make everything bolder and brasher than Idol, which he uses as his template.Still, getting to run the show has re-energized Simon, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere but the judges' table during his last two season on Idol. And the adjustments he has made to this star-making process should guarantee that X Factor gets a different result from Idol, if not much of a different product.Everything about this show is designed to be bigger than Idol: The age range, the categories, the $5 million dollar prize ("the largest in television history," notes host Steve Jones). But it's those first two that could make the biggest difference. Broadening the age range -- it's 12 and up -- allows for children such as the 13-year-old, Shirley Temple-like Rachel Crow, the night's first auditioner, to capture the viewers' hearts, and it also lets singers like 42-year-old mother of two Stacy Francis, who've been told they're too old, get another chance. And breaking the contestants into four categories -- Boys, Girls, Over 30 and Groups -- assures viewers that there's a good chance they'll break the demographic pattern of recent Idol winners.
Staging the auditions before a live audience adds an energy level to the proceedings that Idol can't match, even if the crowd clearly has been coached to over-react to everything, good or bad. It also allows aspiring megastars like hotel performer Siameze Floyd to bring a new level of polished awfulness to the proceedings. (Idol, on the other hand, specializes in amateurishness.) And if you think the Idol lighting director can do wonders in manipulating viewers to vote for a contestant by giving him or her a blazing background, imagine what the people mixing the crowd sound can do for X Factor by bringing the applause up or down.
One of the new judges, record executive L.A. Reid, initially comes across as a more eloquent, better qualified version of Idol's Randy Jackson. The show spends nearly an entire segment setting up a rivalrybetween him and Simon. "I know what it takes to find an artist and turn them into a star," Simon says after watching the marginally talented but eminently packageable USC student Simone Battle perform. L.A. has a completely different assessment of her than Simon does, and he clearly does not like it when Simon disagrees with him. There's tension between the two of them that could be fun to watch as the season progresses -- particularly if Simon continues to emphasize flash over substance.Not all the changes are improvements: When she goes into her little-girl act, judge/mentor Nicole Scherzinger makes Paula Abdul look smart. People who like Idol's emphasis on talent may have a hard time adjusting to X Factor's emphasis on "moments" over pure ability. And we won't even go into Simon allowing his producers to put Geo Godley on stage so he could expose himself to a crowd with children in it.But just as Idol without Simon turned out to be a breath of fresh air, a re-engaged Simon in a new setting could make for a refreshing change of pace.