The Fox hit talent series X Factor has been experiencing some changes, including new judges and a smaller prize.
During Thursday’s Television Critics Association panel for X Factor, executive producer and panel judge Simon Cowell comments on the lowered prize decision, “It’s like having a dinner party. You invite people for dinner–and sometimes it’s fun and sometimes it’s not as fun as you thought it was going to be.”
Paulina Rubio and Kelly Rowland will take the seats of former judges Britney Spears and L.A. Reid when the competition returns in the fall. Cowell says he saw the new judge arrangement as a possibility early on during the second season, explains the Hollywood Reporter.
The British judge continues to imply that the show was following a course he hadn’t planned on. In addition, the pressures of the $5 million prize took Cowell for a surprise. When the X Factor premiered, it held the biggest prize in reality television.
“We got to a point where it was almost too much,” Cowell said. “We want artists to be artists. The prize is now $1 million, and they still get a Sony recording contract.”
Cowell adds in that the show will be going through some format adjustments.
“I felt that what we were doing was similar to what other people were doing, and I had this impatience to get on to season three to do what I wanted to do,” he said. “I never take part with the idea that you’re going to lose. You have to be competitive, and you have to make changes. I work hard. It makes it fun. I’d love to be number one.”
Currently, NBC’s The Voice holds the number one spot, recently rising above American Idol as the top talent competition on television. In 2012, the series moved to the fall, battling against The X Factor for top ratings. The Voice came out with the victory.
When a statement about The Voice’s lack of chart-topping alums came from Cowell during the panel, judge Adam Levine stepped in with an aggressive disagreement.
“No show can survive without that,” he said, citing the chart success of recent X Factor second runners-up Fifth Harmony. “You’re making a promise to the contestants that you’re going to turn them into a real-life artist. Otherwise it’s a game show. This is the most serious thing that I do.”
The lack of names signed to the judges panel on the next season of American Idol prompted one reporter to ask Cowell if he ever considered returning to the Idol judging panel.
“I can’t imagine the scenario,” he said. “I just can’t. No.”