Feisty finish for ‘X Factor’

THE first season of “The X Factor USA” had its grand finals telecast last week, a three-fer fight to the feisty finish between mentor Simon Cowell’s bet, Melanie Amaro, L.A. Reid’s Chris Rene and Nicole Scherzinger’s Josh Krajcik. It was Melanie who had a very merry Christmas, indeed, copping the truly awesome top plum of $5 million—imagine how many iPads all those dollars would buy as gifts for friends, loved ones and even cofinalists and “frenemies” alike?!

The fact that Melanie won reminds us that, during its brief finals run, “X” had much more than its share of gasp-inducing ups and downs—a dizzying roller-coaster ride way up to the highest stratosphere of “overnight” stardom.

After all, before her ultimate victory as the first “X USA” tilt winner, Melanie was officially a loser—she didn’t even make it to Cowell’s list of top young female bets!

Decision

But, she can thank her lucky stars—and horseshoe, and furry bunny paw—that Cowell spent a sleepless night feeling, oh, so guilty about his decision to pass on her. Early in the morning, he sheepishly crawled on his knees (well, that’s an exaggeration, he’d never do that) to beg her forgiveness for his thoughtless gaffe, and ask her to rejoin the competition.

—And now, the “X-ed” contestant has won “X’s” top prize! In terms of stunningly melodramatic denouement, that takes the 10-tier wedding cake! —And, Cowell must be breathing a huge sigh of relief because, if the alternate winner in the tilt’s what-if scenario had turned out to be not as gifted as Melanie, he’d have a lot of explaining and eating humble pie to do!

Now, if only Melanie turns out to be an authentic overnight sensation who sells millions of copies of her debut single, “X USA” would really have something to crow about. Given her golden pipes and Beyoncé-ish looks and vibe that’s more than possible—but, first, Melanie has to lose weight, burn her frumpy show clothes, and consign her dated repertoire to the musical dustbin, where it belongs.

The first season of “X” will also be remembered for the terrifying on-cam burnout of pudgy ‘tween bet, Rachel Crowe, and another juvenile finalist who crassly dissed the judges. And the bitchy-witchy in-fighting among the jurors (which could have been faked to add zing and zest to the occasionally humdrum proceedings). And the sob stories of some of the contenders, especially the over-50 seniors, whose “last crack at stardom” scenario was grist for the constantly churning mills of TV melodrama!

Albums

We hope against hope that, even if they didn’t win, two or three of them could still end up cutting albums, or otherwise reviving their performing careers, so that they will no longer have to sleep in their cars or on the streets.

If the first season of “X USA” ends up launching more stars than the first year of “American Idol,” which produced Kelly Clarkson, that would be sweetly triumphant music to producer-juror Cowell’s ears. —If not, well, it won’t be the first time he’s been foiled in his long stint in the music biz, so it’ll be time to cry—and try again!