This week may be a key one for Simon Cowell’s “The X Factor” show. Last week, upon its return, “X Factor” was beaten handily on both o fits nights. On Wednesday, “X Factor” lost to “Big Brother.” On Thursday, the talent show took a beating from a rerun of “The Big Bang Theory” on CBS. You can only imagine what happens when “Big Bang Theory” comes with new shows against “X Factor.”

The fact that Cowell’s show is sinking may be just part of the overall downward trend of these competition shows. “American Idol” faces extinction next winter if it doesn’t have a revival. “X Factor” was supposed to be its successor. First the rerun beat it. Then “Big Brother” had 6.49 million viewers in the second hour of “X Factor.”

(Two things there– one, how is it possible anyone would watch two hours of “X Factor” without killing themselves? And second, it’s not like “Big Brother” is “Downton Abbey” or “Breaking Bad.” Maybe the viewers were mental patients, a la the famous Nielsen family joke “Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman”.)

Will “X Factor” find some interesting contestants and take off? Or are in for the weekly show in decline story? Stay tuned…

It was just last year that Billy Joel halted his publishing deal for a memoir and gave his advance back to HarperCollins. Now journalist Fred Schruers, who wrote the book with Joel, is going ahead with his own version. However, Billy has nothing to do with it. He emailed me this morning: “I am no longer involved in any kind of book project. Fred Schruers, however, is free to write any kind of book he wants.”

The Schreurs book will be published not by HarperCollins, but by Crown/Random House. When the original contract was cancelled, Billy’s complaint was that the publisher wanted lots of sex, drugs, and rock and roll– especially stories about Christie Brinkley, their break up, Billy’s financial problems with his ex brother in law (first wife Elizabeth’s brother), and his failed marriage to Katie Lee, who turned herself into  celebrity.

It’s unclear if Schruers will now go in that direction or stick to Billy’s music career. Joel was just named yesterday to receive a much deserved Kennedy Center honor. And he’s playing a string of dates in the UK in November.

Billy adds: “He [Fred] asked if he could write a biography after I decided not to do an autobio. I said it was okay with me.”
One thing’s for certain, Billy says: this new book has no connection to his reported “desire” to be on the bestseller lists like Bruce Springsteen or anyone else. Another outlet surmised that when they thought Joel was participating in the new book.

EXCLUSIVE: “ER,” the long running TV series, launched a lot of stars including George Clooney and Julianna Margulies. But the glue that held the show together, Anthony Edwards, has kicked back since he was killed off the show many years ago. Now Edwards, who played Mark Green, is going to direct his first feature film.

Edwards has already cast John Corbett and Heather Graham in a low budget indie comedy called “My Dead Boyfriend.” The screenplay is from Billy Morrissette, ex husband of another “ER” star, Maura Tierney. The plot concerns a woman who comes home, and after finding her couch potato boyfriend dead, investigatee who he really was. Apparently, he had quite a nightlife.

Among the producers of “Dead Boyfriend,” is Jen Gatien, daughter of convicted felon New York nightvlub owner Peter Gatien. Gatien was deported to his Canadian homeland several years ago but apparently can visit the U.S. because he’s part Native American. (I am not making this up.) The Corbett character can easily draw on Gatien’s history for inspiration!

EXCLUSIVE “Law & Order SVU” will be doing the Anthony Weiner sexting story this season, executive producer Warren Leight told me last night. “L&O SVU” always puts a spin on their stories, so their Weiner will be Hispanic. He may still fight with Orthodox Jews in a Brooklyn deli. But the show isn’t sure if it can get away with an ending of their Weiner giving the middle finger to his voters.  He will definitely be sexting young girls.

I was told all this last night at a small screening of the new season’s premiere episode of “Law & Order SVU.”  Emmy winner Mariska Hargitay hsoted the evening with executive producer Warren Leight. Richard Belzer was also present at the Bryant Park Hotel screening room, along with writer-producer Julie Martin, who wrote the harrowing episode with Leight. Alec Baldwin popped in just before the the lights went down.

When we last saw Olivia Benson, a crazy rapist killer psychopath played by Pablo Schreiber was holding a gun to her head. As Leight said before the screening: “We didn’t know if we were being renewed, so we wanted to give NBC incentive to bring us back.” It’s the 15 th season for the popular show.

Benson and Schreiber go through five “acts” and we saw it all without commercials. You’re unlikely to find anything else this intense on network TV or cable this season. Suffice to say Benson makes it out alive, but the episode is a psychological thriller that will take your breath away. The episode is called “Surrender Benson,” and it features the whole “SVU” crew pulling together including Belzer, Ice T, Kelly Giddish, Dean Winters, and Danny Pino.

The show airs on September 25th. Hargitay, who is beautiful even when she’s being kidnapped and tortured, told me: “This was the hardest work I’ve ever done.” And that’s saying a lot after 15 years. How does she put it out of her mind when she gets home? “I don’t know,” she replied. “You just have to.” She happily took pictures with her castmates and Baldwin, and danced around in a hot red dress.

I also ran into Hargitay’s actor husband, Peter Hermann, who appears on the show from time to time as a lawyer. Hermann is featured in the new Judi Dench movie, “Philomena,” which will get a big Oscar push this fall. “You just fall in love with her, she’s so cute,” Hermann said of Dench.