We haven't addressed it yet (I was saving it for a blurb in the next Pop Culture Roundup) but we ought to. I'm surprised too given that there was still talk after last season that they were going to tweak the format once more and give it another go and there seemed to be a lot of positive talk about doing that going on. I had heard that Simon was likely to return to the UK version from the moment Gary Barlow announced he was leaving the UK version to work on another album with Take That so that news didn't surprise me but there was a lot of talk that the US version would go ahead without Simon even if Simon didn't go back to the UK one - probably for cost cutting purposes. I still think the show had promise but so many things just went against it from day 1 and it just seemed more people rooted for its demise than for its success.

I'm glad the UK version will still be around to watch online - I hope Simon's return doesn't wreck it since I actually enjoyed it more without him there even though the contestants haven't been as good (this last season was pretty lame contestant wise over there).

I'm glad we got Alex & Sierra out of the US one too and I still root for them to be a success here and hopefully they will not get screwed by their label now that the show's not coming back. It'd be nice to say that even though the show's gone it made an impact in some way by producing a solid successful act.

(Side note: I read that one of the boys from Restless Road quit the group to go back to being a solo singer but the other two are continuing on, not sure if they're going to remain a duo or try to add a new member or what though. The one that left was the one that sang most of the leads Guess when the group didn't get signed right off the show, he decided it wasn't worth sticking it out to see if they could get anywhere. Bit of a shame, I thought with some work they could be successful; sort of like the unpolished diamonds One Direction were on UK X Factor but now look at them.)

The Hollywood Reporter is claiming that Simon tried to shop the show around after it was decided that Fox was going to cancel it and they specifically mentioned NBC. Seems silly he'd even bother asking NBC when they've got a dearth of singing competition shows already with 2 seasons a year of "The Voice", summers covered with "America's Got Talent" which still features singers, and they brought back "The Sing-Off" for the holidays (and that outperformed "X-Factor" a few times last season too). I mean, I could see Simon looking for another network to take it to, but NBC seems like the last choice I'd think.

Course, he's trying to throw his usual spin out there about the show, now claiming it was only planned to be a 3 year run (yeah right!) and that what did in the show really was the fact that he decided to return to the UK version, like Fox didn't think the show without Simon would be feasible or watchable - which shows how little then Fox would know too, given that it wasn't like people were watching for Simon (especially since so many people didn't watch because he was on). Considering how much it would've saved the show in money to not pay for him to be on air talent along with producing the show, you'd think they would've preferred that option. But Simon would be deluded enough to think he's still a draw. Some people fear he's going to try to insert himself into "America's Got Talent" somehow - I really hope not, I actually enjoyed the show last season for the first time ever so I wouldn't want to see him throw off the chemistry of the judging panel by trying to get in on it... but it does seem like Simon's ego knows no bounds so you never know!