Judge Britney rules on ‘X Factor,’ Demi charms

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Judge Britney Spears is in control on “The X Factor.”

During the season debut airing Wednesday on Fox, the audience cheers her, Simon Cowell defers to her and Spears is crisp, if not a wit, in her contestant verdicts.

We get the pop princess who knows how to hold the spotlight, not the young woman who has struggled in her personal life, in the taped premiere of “X Factor.” Live episodes start airing in November.

In the episode screened Tuesday night at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, Spears frets that it will be difficult to “sit there and be opinionated.”

Not so much.

“I want to know who let you onstage,” she says to a contestant who insulted Demi Lovato, the other freshman joining Simon Cowell and Antonio “L.A.” Reid as a judge.

“I felt I was listening to Alvin and the Chipmunks,” she tells one singer. “You’re flawless,” she says to another.

Jitters may be making her matter-of-fact, and even stern, but she appears unlikely to morph into a Paula Abdul-style pushover even if she gets more comfortable. Her “X Factor” style: sleek, form-fitting dresses and an impressive array of frowns and surprised smiles.

Cowell, the show’s creator, executive producer and the Scrooge of compliments, practically beamed as he tended to give Spears the last word on contestants _ which often is “no,” at least as this episode has it.

“You’re very good at this,” he tells Spears at one point. “Everyone says I’m the mean one,” he adds later.

At one point, when a pained-looking Spears joins the panel in rejecting a singer she’d recorded with, and who is attempting a comeback, she hangs onto her composure.

There are more changes to “X Factor” than the addition of Spears and Lovato, who replaced season one Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger after the show fell short of Cowell’s high-flying ratings predictions.

The revamped “X Factor” retains the pro forma mix of oddballs and genuinely talented singers, but it’s less grandiose. One example: The addition of a reality TV-style backstage glance at contestant rivalries, but with a light touch.

Fox’s show isn’t the only game in town. NBC expanded this week’s return of “The Voice” to three days, with an episode airing Wednesday against “X Factor.”

Spears, 30, who reportedly got a one-season, $15 million contract to join the show, appears to be its top draw. She earned the loudest audience applause at the public screening, held after Cowell and company put their mark on the cement outside Grauman’s on Hollywood Boulevard.

Story Continues →

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.