X Factor 2012

It was bizarre. No presenter. And some film-quality inserts which are supposed to be non scripted behind the scenes chats between the judges. And chats between competing contestants just prior to going on stage.

It came across as a very contrived effort overall. And an extremely bizarre choice of some of the "yes" votes.

I'm not a regular viewer of these talent shows. But of what I have dipped in and out of over the years, last nights X Factor USA was the worst I have ever seen.

You really think so?
I have to disagree completely, I thought it was very well put together, and if they expand on some of the newer features they've introduced the show is a great blueprint for the global X Factor juggernaut. I thought the chemistry between the judges was excellent, it reminded me of the Cheryl, Dannii, Louis and Simon era we had.

I made a mistake in my original post; titles were used, but they are unchanged from last year.

I liked the way they put the American one together too, it was almost fly on the wall and everything was still somehow described (e.g. showing a news report to set the location). The only thing I didn't like was the TOWIE-esque scenes, but Americans are more accustomed to them so I guess that won't be really an issue. But in terms of the ratings it doesn't seem to be performing that well (and being overshadowed by The Voice) so it will be interesting to see if it grows, and whether FOX decide to continue with the programme after this year or not.

As above I completely agree about the panel, his two 'out of the box' panels this year have been superb- firstly the new Britain's Got Talent panel with Alesha Dixon and David Walliams, and now the X Factor USA one. It's a shame he just shoehorned Nicole into ours this year instead of biting the bullet and doing another revamp, I like her a lot and am willing to give the 4 of them a chance once the auditions are over (because we haven't seen much of her yet) but it doesn't seem to be working just yet.

The UK version really is lacking in punch, nobody takes a Gary Barlow put down that seriously, same with Louis and Tulisa and Nicole seems to lack bite. I'd still rather Mel B was back, least she was entertaining!

Louis is just part of the furniture, Tulisa is a cheap Cheryl, they were too late to get Nicole on board (she should have been put on the UK one last year when she was still in good public favour) and Gary is just boring. The problem with Nicole and Tulisa is that they were the both supposed to be the 'Cheryl' of X Factor UK and X Factor USA in 2011, so they're basically the same.

They're in a bit of a rubbish situation because the programme needs stability but they need another upheaval. If they dig deep they'll get Mel B no problem, and if they try hard enough they could probably get Cheryl back too, together they'd probably be enough to sort the problems of the last 2 series and give the show its spark back. Even during the current ratings slump it still remains one of the biggest shows on TV, whilst BGT, Strictly and I'm a Celebrity have all had rough periods but have managed to put work in and get the right names involved to get them all back on top.

I don't see the appeal of Mel B - she's awful on the Australian version and wasn't great on ours - just louwer than the rest.

Is this the first year we've had all three websites being promoted each time? A bit clunky, especially considering we then get Peter Dickson going on about 'ITV1' (although I guess that will be sorted soon)

She's a talented Cheryl

Mel B was a breath of fresh air, and it felt like she was the new judge given that Nicole hardly featured in the auditions rounds.

Just a small issue from tonights show, did anyone notice they were using a 24 hour clock but still stating am or pm? It annoyed me quite a lot . Really good show tonight though, it regained a lot of its spark and I think it was the best bootcamp programme for a long while. The panel works much better now too.

Not sure if anyone is interested, but the USA version premiered on ITV2 last night, and is on again tonight at 8

I think last night's episode was the first to feature product placement. Presumably provided by Virgin Atlantic and possibly Samsung with those tablet computers.