‘The X Factor’ USA: Paulina Rubio, Kelly Rowland almost a done deal as judges

For season 3 of “The X Factor,” Simon Cowell appears to be making one of his wildest dreams come true: Surrounding himself with successful women, and not having to split his time between them and another man on live TV.

According to TMZ, Paulina Rubio is in the final stage of negotiations to join Cowell, Demi Lovato, and Kelly Rowland (as previously reported) on the judging panel for the show. This would be the first time in the “American Idol” era where we have a panel that is built up of one man and three women, and it’s not clear that there were ever any other guys seriously considered to be candidates.

When it comes to the bottom line, we’re sure that this is a panel that Fox loves from a cost perspective. Neither Rubio nor Rowland is going to charge anywhere near the $15+ million that Britney Spears received for the show last year, and they may bring much more to the table as judges. This seems to be a move made with chemistry in mind rather than selling the judges based off their name, even if both new parties have sold millions upon millions of albums around the globe.

To us, Rubio is clearly the more “hmm” choice of the two, but not in a bad way. She’s enormously popular in Mexico and parts of Europe, and this could be a way for Cowell to reach those communities in America. We just don’t know what her crossover audience is like among people who do not enjoy Latin music. Our biggest shocker is that Cowell didn’t try to shoehorn someone from the country world in here, given that southern audiences love singing shows and it’s worked so well with Blake Shelton on “The Voice.” (We had reported previously that Faith Hill was at one time considered.)

Do you think that this judging panel could lead this show at the end of the day to the promised land, or at least to higher ratings? We want to hear from you below. Meanwhile, if you do want to hear more on the Rowland casting, all you have to do is click here.

Photo: Fox