The only thing more depressing than watching contestants get cut from "X Factor" auditions is watching them get through.
The show, which debuted Wednesday after years of plotting, is about money, not music. Specifically, it's about exploiting the financial straits of its frequently desperate contestants.
See also: Watch Stacy Francis and Chris Rene's Performances (Video)
Almost every one of the successful performers on the first episode mentioned money as a motivation – and many truly seemed to need it, from a 42-year-old single mother who wants to send her son to school to a trash hauler and recovering drug addict trying to provide stability for his own boy.
Those two contestants in particular had so much talent that I wished they didn't have to cash it in on a show as tacky and mean-spirited as this one – basically a cruel knockoff of creator Simon Cowell's old show, "American Idol."
All the financially strapped singers reminded me of people who play the lottery because they see it – too often correctly – as their one shot at wealth.
But at least people playing the lottery don't have millions of viewers looking over their shoulders, as multimillionaires exploit their narratives on TV.
Also read: Fox's 'New Girl' Starts Strong
"X Factor" follows a cash-obsessed values system in which getting a Pepsi commercial is seen as a musical accomplishment, rather than selling out. (One of the prizes – along with $5 million – is a spot in a Pepsi ad to air during the Super Bowl.)
It's disheartening to watch judges who seem interested in music mostly as a means of self-promotion (note Nicole Scherzinger's narcissism over her birthday) preside over the fates of struggling singers who display much more heart than they do.
Paula Abdul, as usual, contributes little. Show creator Simon Cowell remains a ruthless judge of talent – or to be more accurate, talent that will translate to the lowest common denominator. Scherzinger is pretty.
One of the panelists is rather likable – but she's unfortunately the one who gets booted, without explanation, midway through the first episode. Cheryl Cole, who seemed the most authentic panelist in the premiere, was unfortunately ejected under mysterious circumstances and replaced by Scherzinger. (There was speculation that producers believed Americans wouldn't like Cole's northern English accent, because apparently, well, we're dumb.)
The remaining judge, L.A. Reid, comes off like someone who had a soul once – and hopes to reclaim it, even from within a machine in which he's agreed to become another gear. But he's in no position to do good here.
Because even though "X Factor" will make one person's dreams come true, it will grind up and spit out countless other contestants.
They can't all become stars. But the judges shamelessly stoke the hopes of anyone with the slightest chance.
Cowell set the disingenuous tone with his remarks to a 13-year-old, Rachel Crow, who said she needed the $5 million because "my family has like no money."
