‘The X Factor’ USA season 3: Demi Lovato puts Simon Cowell in a chokehold in first poster

For those of you anxious to see “The X Factor” USA return to the air, we imagine that you’re not alone. For the first time in a while, there’s actually a genuine reason to be excited! The new judging panel of Simon Cowell, Demi Lovato, Paulina Rubio, and Kelly Rowland all seem to actually like each other and get along, and they all also have their own distinct voices as judges and are not just out to be nice all of the time.

As for what the show is looking to do in their promotional strategy for the new season, that seems to be rather simple: Try to make it look as though Simon is completely controlled by the women that surround him on the panel. We have to say that Simon looks awfully cheerful to be choking, almost like he took his photo, and then someone decided to Photoshop Demi doing the act in after the fact.

Paulina clearly has the fiercest expression going on, but we can’t quite tell if she is on her way to a frat party, or she is try to incite some sort of revolt with her facial expression and raised fist. Kelly looks like she was just surprised on her birthday, and Demi clearly seems to be enjoying the thought of giving her frequent sparring partner the what’s what.

This is a season of the show where they really need to find a way to turn this into a bigger hit than it was last year with Britney Spears. Nobody could stand the judging, and the audience was almost dead from the start. Hopefully, Simon can use the success of Emblem3 and Fifth Harmony as some sort of evidence that this show can produce talent, even though its two winners have hardly been major success stories on the charts. (Melanie Amaro still doesn’t even have an album.)

Photo: Fox (via Entertainment Weekly)