‘The X Factor’ USA review: ‘Meet the top 12’ show is Simon Cowell’s Halloween nightmare

Thanks in part to the World Series allowing for a “will it air?” episode of “The X Factor” USA, we had an opportunity to see an episode that was really all about getting an opportunity to meet the top twelve singers remaining in the competition. This was an opportunity for the show to really gives us some great new footage, and show who the singers really are away from all the editing and the obnoxious over-praising. We could see that they are real people, funny and relatable and without sappy stories.

So instead, what does the show give us? An hour that is all about sappy stories and “this means the world to me” and other Miss America type answers and quotes that makes this show in no way distinguishable from any others. The dramatic overtures going for an hour straight were really too much to bear; even for some of the teenagers, we never really got the impression that this was fun for them to be a part of.

From a performance aspect, this was just a recap show. In order to find a way for it to be entertaining then, the producers at least have to try to make it seem like they care about what they are giving us. But they don’t seem like they care that much about anything more than a derivative singing competition. That’s not fair to Rion Paige, Sweet Suspense, Restless Road, or any of the other young stars hoping to make a name for themselves in this industry, and you shouldn’t have to go on Twitter to figure that out.

So in the end, this was a disaster in a nearly-unwatchable recap show stuffed full of things we’ve already seen. Right now, what Simon Cowell cares mostly about is finding an act he can make money on after the fact. There’s no real effort in here to make the show entertaining as it happens for us as viewers. Hopefully that changes when the show goes live next week, but this was one recap special that shouldn’t have even aired. If you’re not going to try to create a fun product, why should should we try to say anything good about it? Grade: F.

You can read about some better performances from this season here, which is at least evidence that there is still hope left for this season.

Photo: Fox