The X-Factor Foreshadows End of Reality Competitions - Jeanine Poggi

The X-Factor'sratings continue to drop, down 11% from last week to just over 11 million viewers, lagging behind most major network comedies. Could the slow start to Simon Cowell's much hyped new project reveal the beginning of the end for the obsession with reality competitions? I can't believe I am saying this, but I hope so.

Don't get me wrong, I have been a loyal American Idol groupie since 2002, have an unhealthy obsession with So You Think You Can Dance and replayed the opening number of last week's The Sing-Off more than a dozen times.

But I have found in recent years that it has taken a lot more for the talent on these reality shows to impress me. After 10 season of American Idol, does The X-Factor really think we are going to be surprised by 42-year-old Stacy Francis' rendition of "Natural Woman"? Sure, she can belt it out with some of the best, but at this point we have heard nearly every down-on-their-luck-single-mother story Cowell and clan can possibly muster.

The X-Factor is a huge commitment, asking viewers last week to carve out four hours for its two-night premier. Reality competitions demand we tune in one night to watch a dozen or so performances and then a second night to see which contestants have been voted out of the competition, forgoing other quality scripted series.

Even worse is being subjected to hours of auditions. How many more cackles, howls, screams and bellows can our ears stand? It may have been novel to poke fun at William Hung when he sang "She Bangs" in American Idol Season 3, but laughing at these failed auditions has passed the line of funny and is just plain cruel.

America is clearly saying it is in desperate need of pure, unadulterated comedy, swapping Dancing With the Starsfor Two and a Half Men and Two Broke Girls, both of which brought in 20.5 million and 11.8 million viewers, respectively.

Half-hour spurts of scripted laughter seem like a better way to forget about a flailing economy and global disarray, rather than watching people be brutally judged and criticized for attempting to live out their dreams.

After more than a decade of craving shows that pin "real" people against one another and give us the power to crown a victor, The X-Factor's mediocre start may have finally broken America's trance. We may now be ready to relinquish the desire to control television and allow writers to provide us an escape from reality.

Luckily, laughter has returned to prime time.

Jeanine Poggi is a financial journalist by day, TV addict by night. She started her blog, Too Much To Tivo, in April 2010 as a way to dish about her favorite shows and characters. The series currently recording on her TiVo include So You Think You Can Dance, The Big Bang Theory, Vampire Diaries, True Blood and American Idol. Jeanine can be reached at jpoggi@toomuchtotivo.com.

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