Saturday, June 20, 2026

Kelly Clarkson Special Has More Viewers Than Former Mentor Simon Cowell’s “X Factor”

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This must hurt. “The X Factor” is just not doing well. We all know it. But on Wednesday night there was an added insult: Kelly Clarkson’s Christmas special had more total viewers than Simon Cowell’s competition. The irony of course is that Clarkson was discovered on Cowell’s “American Idol” and was the very first winner of that show.

“X Factor” was the eleventh–yes 11th– most watched show on Wednesday night. That’s also rough news. From 8 to 10 pm “X Factor” had 4.97 million viewers. It was up against another singing competition on NBC called “The Sing Off.” That show had 6.03 million viewers. Ouch!

Later on NBC, Clarkson’s Christmas special came on at 10pm and scored 5.31 mil viewers. Indeed, if you take away the shows on the almost non existent CW network, “X Factor” had the lowest total audience of any show on Wednesday night.

The people at “American Idol” had better be watching this news. If they haven’t made severe changes for the upcoming season, they’re going to be in the same predicament.

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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009, where he covered Michael Jackson, and previously wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine in the mid-1990s, where he covered the O.J. Simpson trial. He also edited Fame magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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