Season 3 Premieres With A New Improved Version Of The X Factor

I did not realize the third season of The X Factor was premiering last night til I saw my DVR was recording it.

I thought I'd cancelled my DVR's recording of The X Factor, last season, after I tired of it.

I don't know if it is too soon to judge such a thing, but judging from the premiere episode it appears that The X Factor has fixed a lot of what made this show annoying to watch.

The show seemed fast paced, well edited, little filler. Little pointless chatter. Much less flash and noise.

The new judges, Kelly Rowland and Paulina Rubio, seem eons better, on first exposure, than Brittney Spears and L.A. Reid.

Particularly L.A. Reid. Mr. Reid was just not a good television presence.

Also dumped is Khloe Kardashian. Leaving Mario Lopez as the sole host, with Mario being very subdued and barely a presence.

The dynamic between Simon Cowell and three female fellow judges seems to have a pleasant feel to it. So far.

Is the 3rd attempt the charm? Will The X Factor finally become the hit that Simon Cowell was so sure it was going to be? Time will tell. But, just judging from episode number one of season three, it would seem that The X Factor may have fine tuned itself sufficiently to finally draw more viewers than it repels.

I did not adjust the settings on my DVR after viewing last night's The X Factor episode....

First X Factor Live Show a Noisy Train Wreck along with Khloe Kardashian's Nipple Exposure

I did not notice it, but, apparently many other viewers did, that being the element of Wednesday night's first live show of this year's X Factor, getting the most buzz was host Khloe Kardashian's semi-exposed nipple, barely hidden under a sheer purple blouse, under which Khloe opted to wear no underwear in the form of a bra.

Methinks FOX needs to pull the plug on The X Factor. It ain't working. It's embarrassingly bad, yet sort of entertaining in a watching a train wreck sort of way.

The ridiculously over the top, over done productions that explode around and overwhelms the singers is so incredibly tacky and eye aching.

Willie Jones looked sort of shell shocked at the explosion of flash and dance surrounding him.

In the picture above that is Paige Thomas standing between Khloe and Mario Lopez. What she is wearing is a perfect example of how far off the good taste track The X Factor is.

Taking a tour of the Internet this morning I see the reaction to The X Factor trainwreck is almost universal. Below are some examples of what viewers are saying....

Despite all the flash Simon takes pride in showering on this show, every acts is coming off very amateurish and the result is more like a bad syndicated variety show than a talent competition with a $5 million contract as a prize.

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Gawd this show is terrible. Anything that makes American Idol look amazingly riveting in comparison needs to die. I know the show has to distinguish itself, but I still really hate the Over  The Top production for every performance. Most of them can barely sing anyway so the wacky costumes, backup dancers, strobe lights, etc just exaggerate how awful and embarrassing they are. It all just seems so manufactured and fake, and the show feels manufactured and fake enough without all of that noise.

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What a craptastic first show. Britney has horrible comments. Demi's bangs are distracting. Simon's plastic surgery and weight gain are disappointing. LA Reid is almost as bad as Randy Jackson.

Okay that gives you a small inkling of what some viewers were thinking about Wednesday first live X Factor show.

One thing about this supposed live show that I noticed is it does not seem like a live show. There are a lot of pre-produced segments. And the over the top visually noisy productions that dwarf the singing also do not seem live, even though, apparently, they are.

I was surprised that I did not find Khloe Kardashian to be a bad host. She was a bit of a trouble stirrer at times. She was sort of the best part of the show.

The weirdest part last night, to me, was Simon Cowell's comment after the performance by one of the groups he mentors, the boy band called EMBLEM 3, who got the pimp spot as last act of the night.

Of EMBLEM 3 Simon said, "Remember this night. You are seeing a future superstar here."

Apparently Simon Cowell is losing his mind, which would also explain his bad mistake of bringing this badly produced train wreck to American TV screens.

And paying the "winner" 5 million dollars.

Wondering What Happened to Panda Ross Before Mario Lopez & Khloe Kardashian Were Hired To Host The X Factor

Fox's The X Factor was not in the Top 20 Nielsen Ratings this week. While NBC's The Voice was in the Top 10 at the #8 spot.

To my viewing eyes the 2nd season of The X Factor started off much better than the first season. Part of the improvement was being rid Steve Jones as the host and going with a no-host format in sort of a documentary style.

The no-host format will be coming to an end when The X Factor goes live, with Mario Lopez and Khloe Kardashian being co-hosts.

I think this pair being co-hosts will just add  to the mess that The X Factor has become. Maybe I am wrong, but I think a lot of TV viewers have Kardashian fatigue.

When The X Factor got past the initial auditions to what it calls "Boot Camp" the show, for me, started to be a mess.

"Boot Camp" seemed to be a confused jumble. What about this was a "Boot Camp"?

In the audition rounds a lady named Panda Ross made a HUGE impression. Simon Cowell opined that he felt like he was watching a legend. Panda Ross really seemed to have the X Factor. However, even though Panda made it to "Boot Camp" we saw no Panda. No Panda at all.

The missing Panda perplexed viewers. No explanation was given.

A couple comments gleaned from the Interwebs...

I don't get what's up with not showing her, even if she didn't make it. She was a  STAR during the auditions. The only thing I can think is, they didn't want her in the end and they were so worried about a backlash that they made her invisible during boot camp. I mean, isn't she like the ONLY one who got such a big segment in auditions not to even get a snippet during boot camp?

I agree. They only explanation for not showing her is that she did well, and they had no real justification for cutting her so they're just hoping people forgot her. Too bad she was so unforgettable.

The above comments are two among a lot of comments from viewers perplexed about the missing Panda.

On a Yahoo music blog called Reality Rocks, in a post titled Whatever Happened To Panda Ross? Simon Cowell’s ‘X Factor’ Boo Speaks I found an explanation about what happened to Panda at "Boot Camp" with some of the explanation in Panda's own words...

Well, Yahoo! is happy and relieved to report that Panda is alive and well--and 60 pounds slimmer, thanks to recent gastric bypass surgery--and she did recover from her illness in time to attend to Boot Camp. But why wasn't her time at Boot Camp shown? That's a bigger mystery.

"I'm so glad that you asked that question, because I'm wondering the same thing. Like, what happened?" says Panda in an exclusive Reality Rocks interview, discussing her bizarre lack of screentime this season. "But to be honest, my friend kind of pre-warned me that I might not get shown much. She said, 'Panda, don't get upset if you don't see yourself on TV, because you have a personality that's larger than life. So if they were to continue to show you on the show--and you're not the person that they're hoping to have win--they wouldn't want it to turn from the X Factor Show to the Panda Ross Show!'"

So here's what all the Panda Fandas watching at home didn't get to see: First, Panda performed a Boot Camp solo of Jennifer Hudson's "Love You I Do," which she basically turned into a serenade for her number-one "boo," Simon. "I had Simon as red as...I don't know, I'm just trying to think of the shiniest red thing I can think of! I just did the Panda Ross thing," she laughs. This was enough to get Panda through to the next stage, at which point the remaining contestants sang in groups. (Note: Hardly any of this season's Boot Camp group performances, by any of the contestants, were aired.) Panda remembers that she was completely unfamiliar with her group's number--shockingly, the Beatles' "With A Little Help From My Friends"--and that she "felt crazy because everybody knew that song, and I had to stay up all night to learn it. But I did awesome with it. I made sure that I threw a little classic Panda Ross in it. I took my hair down, and when it came time for me to sing the line, 'Could it be anybody,' I was looking straight towards Simon. I walked off and I was like, 'I nailed it!'"

Somehow I don't think we've heard the last of Panda Ross