With this latest ploy, Simon Cowell has once again retained his position as someone who makes or breaks fortunes in Hollywood. As if kicking out Steve Jones wasn’t enough, Simon Cowell has pulled another coup and showed red cards to both Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger!

Admittedly, Steve Jones didn’t add much to the whole x-factor US equation. His restraint always seemed a little too selfish and provided he wanted to give the contestants the limelight, he seemed a bit harsh and rude – exactly what doesn’t sit too well with the audiences. Letting Steve out of the X-factor US loop was something that needed to be done, and that’s exactly what Simon did.

While Paula Abdul was sweet, she didn’t really add much to the competition itself. Folks would remember her antics from the American Idols previous seasons where she was a general incoherent mess and spoke in short sentences. Well, Abdul’s X-factor US stint didn’t fare much better. She was generally a little too cheerful, would get up off her seat a little too often and had a little too little to add to the general ambiance.

By comparison, former Pussycat Dolls front woman, Nicole Scherzinger made Paula look like a much needed addition. Nicole was probably the most useless addition to the X-Factor US team. Silly, in fact. The whole, ‘OMG, I’m going to cry right-about-now’ deal Nicole pulled in every single episode was annoying. She generally didn’t have much to say, and with the sad departure of Rachel Crowe, Nicole put herself forever in the bad books of the audiences. (Really, seeing the young girl break down that way on TV was horrible.)

Now that the dust has settled, let’s be honest, there are no winners. To let go of the judges a week before the first X-factor US winner, Melanie Amaro, is set to make her US Super Bowl debut for Pepsi, was well, kind of stupid. The limelight is now away from the contestant – who let’s face it, deserved her x-factor trophy because she was that good. But by kicking the judges and the host out, a mere week before her debut, Simon has one-upped poor Melanie big time.

No, we’re not saying that the judges needed to stay, in fact all the judges could have gone and it wouldn’t have made much of a difference – yes, that includes the great Cowell himself! So unless, as the rumor mill suggests, Mariah Carey is coming over for both Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger – and Neil Patrick Harris is coming on as the host, there is little chance of saving the show or it’s audiences.

So what now? The show has had a marginally successful first season, the ratings didn’t drop, there were no over the top antics employed by the producers. The mild success also proves that people want to see ordinary folks like them become big stars and that in fact, they enjoyed it. But by pulling the stunt like Simon has made things very difficult for both himself, the sponsors Pepsi and mostly for Melanie Amaro.