I was just thinking today.... almost all other X Factor winners and a few runners-up seem to have a hit in their own country with their solo material. Weird how US X-F alumni haven't made a splash on the chart at all, whilst a lot of foreign XF alumni have done better in the US! If it were down to radio bias "I won't play an XF alumni on my radio show", why would they play a foreign XF alumni's song then?! Quite an interesting pattern... I wonder if US XF will last beyond S3.

Have they done any worse than The Voice alumni? The US is really quite bizarre in how it treats its talent show winners. American Idol seems so respected but The Voice / X Factor watchers seem to tune in for the show and nothing else, it's odd. I guess AI is something of a respected institution at this stage, whereas people see the other two as something to watch when Idol isn't on?

It's the same with The Voice over there too - aside from the songs that chart whilst the series is on (of which I highest I've seen on the Hot 100 is #17), the highest charting song is Wasting All These Tears by Cassadee Pope which got to #37 this week (and could climb), in fact I don't think any of the contestants aside from her charted a post album single except I think RaeLynn must have got to the Bubbling Under chart.

 

As for XF US, there wasn't even a winner's single and aside from getting to #37 or something on the R&B chart Melanie Amaro flopped totally. I haven't followed Tate Stevens but I usually look at the country chart and I can't say I've seen him there. Tbh both artists were perfectly marketable (Melanie proved very versatile), but still totally bombed.

I think Tate Stevens got a Top 20 album but it was low sales. Also, Melanie Amaro's career is near enough over, that's if she even had one in the first place. Chris Rene off the first series got to Number One on the Bubbling Under chart with Young Homie.

American Idol seems so respected but The Voice / X Factor watchers seem to tune in for the show and nothing else, it's odd. I guess AI is something of a respected institution at this stage, whereas people see the other two as something to watch when Idol isn't on?

 

I think Nicki/Mariah really hurt Idol this past season, it dropped massively and I saw quite a big deal being made of it in the media. The most recent two cycles of The Voice outrated Idol on average.

I think the problem with The X Factor and The Voice is that it's too much about the judges and not the contestants, i.e. it's a competition between the mentors/coaches to see which of their acts will win. Whereas Idol is a bit more about the contestants as there isn't a competition between the judges. Although Mariah and Nicki did steal a bit of the limelight away from them this year.

 

It's crazy how Melanie Amaro won a $5,000,000 record deal yet they ended up not bothering to release an album. :lol: Where the heck did all that money go to?

 

Also in regards to the first post, you're right international X Factor acts do better than the US contestants. In fact Olly Murs, runner up from years ago in the UK, debuted higher in the same week as Tate Stevens's album, the current US X Factor winner. And people consider Olly to have flopped, which says a lot about Tate.

To be fair, Melanie and Tate are both good singers but they're both so dull and lacking in the so called "X Factor", ironically.

 

I think the biggest problem is there's too many singing reality shows in the US right now, so I hope The X Factor does get cancelled after this season. And two seasons of The Voice per year is way too much.

I think Nicki/Mariah really hurt Idol this past season, it dropped massively and I saw quite a big deal being made of it in the media. The most recent two cycles of The Voice outrated Idol on average.

 

I don't think it's entirely fair to blame them for its ratings. Idol's total viewers and viewers in the 18-49 demographic (which is all advertisers care about) have been tumbling year-on-year, as have the mainstream US networks as a whole.

 

I really feel bad for Melanie Amaro, to not even get to put out a proper single and video after winner a massive recording contract is just bizarre.

 

I think Melanie even finished her album, seems stupid they won't release it or anything but I just think that she's done so badly with her singles (I think she's charted minorly on the Dance Club Play chart with Don't Fail Me Now and the same on the R&B chart with Love Me Now) they just aren't bothering with it. She really needs to find a sound though, she sang ballads almost all the way through The X Factor and then came out with her inner dance diva with Respect as a promo single and then Don't Fail Me Now, then finally smooth R&B with Love Me Now.

 

Also wasn't it just $5million she won to be paid in instalments? I seem to remember that a record contract wasn't necessarily a given (although of course it's unlikely that the winner of a singing competition wouldn't be signed).

 

I think Nicki/Mariah really hurt Idol this past season, it dropped massively and I saw quite a big deal being made of it in the media. The most recent two cycles of The Voice outrated Idol on average.

Yeah, I Am Beautiful is the lowest charting Idol winner's single ever! #93 is painful when Home was such a colossal hit. Although I think that was very radio friendly and not at all a typical winner's single whereas I Am Beautiful is fine but a bit cliché and dated.

I don't think it's entirely fair to blame them for its ratings. Idol's total viewers and viewers in the 18-49 demographic (which is all advertisers care about) have been tumbling year-on-year, as have the mainstream US networks as a whole.

 

Well yeah I've seen all the ratings and it's also a mixture of singing-show overload but between the premiere and the finale it had dropped by -50% and the finale itself was down -44% on last year, I think that speaks volumes.

Could intl X Factor alumni (Olly, 1D, Little Mix, Rebecca Fergusson, Cher Lloyd, etc.) have had the advantage in that no one really paid attn. to the "X Factor" tag but more of the "international artist" tag?

That and the fact that they were already vetted at home. Once it was proven they had wide appeal and sold a lot of records in the UK, they were marketed heavily in the US. Plenty of UK singing competition winners flopped at home and were accordingly never given a shot in the US (Rebecca Fergusson may be the exception to my point, although she hasn't been huge success in the US either yet).

 

I don't follow these shows at all any more but it seems to me American Idol (and Pop Idol before it) was meant to be a vehicle for Syco to promote an act and eventually sell a ton of records. The Voice seems to me more about lifting NBC's ratings above its usual evening audience of 7 people.

 

As far as X Factor was concerned, the whole thing was just ill-conceived from the beginning and has never been a significant ratings success, and will therefore not sell records for its participants.

 

I think Tate Stevens got a Top 20 album but it was low sales.

• Tate Stevens' album debuted at #18 on Billboard 200 selling just under 17k (billboard chart date 05/11/2013)
• Emblem3 debuted at #71 on Digital Songs selling 29k, and #9 on Bubbling Under (billboard chart date 05/04/2013)

 

 

Also wasn't it just $5million she won to be paid in instalments? I seem to remember that a record contract wasn't necessarily a given (although of course it's unlikely that the winner of a singing competition wouldn't be signed).

 

I read somewhere that the winner would get $1m a year for 5 years, in addition to the money Simon would spend on the album.

 

 

 

Plenty of UK singing competition winners flopped at home and were accordingly never given a shot in the US (Rebecca Fergusson may be the exception to my point, although she hasn't been huge success in the US either yet).

 

But didn't Rebecca Ferguson perform quite well in the UK?

 

But didn't Rebecca Ferguson perform quite well in the UK?

Yep, it sold 500k at least - in fact it's probably not too far off double platinum. She had two top 20 singles as well including a top 10 so she did very well in the UK tbh. Her genre is more of an album seller obviously.

That and the fact that they were already vetted at home.

That could be it .... Vetted at home to a point where XF being their origin isn't even an issue any more.

But didn't Rebecca Ferguson perform quite well in the UK?

 

Indeed - she sold more albums than Cher Lloyd and Little Mix, but some people can't see past the singles chart.

Edited June 22, 201312 yr by Giselle

That and the fact that they were already vetted at home. Once it was proven they had wide appeal and sold a lot of records in the UK, they were marketed heavily in the US. Plenty of UK singing competition winners flopped at home and were accordingly never given a shot in the US (Rebecca Fergusson may be the exception to my point, although she hasn't been huge success in the US either yet).

Didn't her album debut in the Top 30 in the US?

 

 

Didn't her album debut in the Top 30 in the US?

 

#23. Yeah, she is apparently more successful on both sides of the Atlantic than I realized.

She did debut at #23 but I'm sure it fell quite fast. But then so did Little Mix despite their #4 peak (that fell to #23 in its second week). Still I think Rebecca's success is downplayed just because she doesn't have hit singles - her album has gone double platinum whilst Cher's only went platinum and Matt's didn't quite platinum despite the fact it was close. One Direction sold ~200k more than her though :(