In the event you are interested, it was announced yesterday that Simon Cowell, Freemantle and Fox fired Steve Jones (host of US X Factor) and judges Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul. While it was generally expected that Steve and Nicole would leave, it was shocking to see Paula Abdul on the termination list as well. This was shocking because Paula and Simon go way back to the beginning of American Idol. I suspect that Paula may show up as a regular judge on "So You Can Think You Can Dance".

Rumors are that they are talking to Mariah Carey to join the judging panel for next year only. I would be very surprised if she does it, but since Jennifer Lopez has done it on American Idol, Mariah may view it as an OK thing to do at this stage to be closer to her children over the next year. So we'll see.

But in my opinion, Simon, Fox and Freemantle went one firing too far.

Read more here from the Hollywood Reporter:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/x-factor-simon-cowell-paula-abdul-out-season-2-285992

I did not watch the US version of this show as the previews looked terrible. It seems the UK version had more interesting contestants than the US version. Also, I'm not a huge fan of Simon and was not a American Idol fan.

However, if the show did so badly everybody had to go maybe Simon should look at himself as well.

Why in the world would he fire Paula?

I agree with the criticism of the show as it compared to idol. Nicole = Kara LA = Randy Generic host = closeted host.

But....Rachael Crow needed to go home. So did Drew. A few more years and both could probably be contenders. I thought Astro was more deserving to stay, temper tantrum notwithstanding.

Steve Jones was annoying as hell. You could tell he was gonna get the axe when he kept trying to force Simon to comment after Drew was eliminated.

And what's her name was just as useless as what's her name was on idol.

But Paula???

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Paula was fired for being too soft.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/10351385-421/paula-abdul-fired-from-the-x-factor-because-she-was-too-soft.html

The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting that Paula was fired for being too soft.

http://www.suntimes.com/entertainment/10351385-421/paula-abdul-fired-from-the-x-factor-because-she-was-too-soft.html

Couldn't Simon just withhold her Oxy/Vicodin for the 12 hours before taping? Bet that'd harsh her up!

I liked Paula and I enjoyed her on the show. Simon is an ass!

[...]Simon is an ass!

I thought that was the entire crux of his appeal/personality?