E! News reported yesterday that Britney Spears is close to signing a $15 million deal to become a judge on the US version of the X Factor. Anyone who has seen Britney Spears in interviews has to snicker. There is no way Brit can be an effective mentor for other singers if previous behavior is any indication. On the other hand, whether Spears can boost ratings for the show is a completely different story.
By the way, the E!News story says that Britney is close to signing the $15 million deal. It stops short of positively confirming that the gig is set in stone.
Ratings:
X Factor (US) averaged about 12 million viewers in its first season. This was a far cry from the expected 20 million, and host Steve Jones and judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger were fired as a result.
It is doubtful that any one cast member could dramatically improve ratings. Sure, the initial buzz might increase ratings for an episode or two, but are millions of people going to come in droves to watch a loopy Britney Spears? I doubt it. All changes Idol tried to make generally resulted in lower ratings. If the combination of Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez can’t do much for ratings, I don’t see what Britney is going to do.
But this does not mean she won’t have any effect. For whatever reason, Britney is one of the most talked-about celebrities, and people search for her a lot online. According to the Google AdWords keyword tool, Britney gets around 11 million searches per month. Jennifer Lopez also gets around 11 million searches per month. Internet searches are often about just seeing pictures, though. And they don’t relate directly to TV ratings.
In all likelihood, there is just not going to be one person that dramatically increases ratings. The show already has 12 million viewers. The 11 million searches for Britney is even less than that, and that is monthly, not weekly.
Is Britney worth $15 million in business? This is possible. Last year, X Factor made over $5 million in ad revenue every half hour. $15 million is only 90 minutes of that. However, the ad revenue is expected to go down for X Factor’s Season 2. Nonetheless, this still works out to about one episode for Britney’s salary. If she increases ratings by only 5% or so, then that would be a win for X Factor. The initial probable increase in interest may be able to boost the ratings by that amount. Whether this would be the case for a second season is a different story. Unless the show is totally crazy, they will only give Britney a one-year contract.
Sources:
E! Online Story About Britney Spears Getting $15 Million to Judge X Factor