Creator and judge Simon Cowell

X Factor has averaged 12.3 million viewers, cheap moncler jackets with both Wednesday's and Thursday's shows ranking in the top 25 — a good showing but far short of American Idol's 20-million-plus. The show has performed better among young adults prized by advertisers, ranking in the top 15.
PHOTOS: Revisit the Season 1 finalists
MORE: Who will win 'X Factor'?
Creator and judge Simon Cowell, whose U.K. version is a top-rated hit, acknowledges overstating early expectations. Before the premiere, the former Idol judge had said he'd be disappointed with less than 20 million.
"It didn't get the numbers I predicted," he says now. "I'm not going to lie and say I'm thrilled. But I've also learned a lesson that you can't be too cocky, and it may take a few years. You've got to earn the right to those numbers."
But he's now generally satisfied with the audience, considering X Factor is a first-year show in a genre crowded with Idol, The Voice and Cowell's own America's Got Talent. In the U.K., X Factor faces less competition.
David Scardino, entertainment specialist at ad agency RPA, says he was surprised at the lack of skepticism, especially among ad buyers, about the show's chances before it premiered. Nonetheless, "hype and all that aside, I think the show is a major factor in sending Fox into the second half of the season in extremely good shape." he says. "Probably a little of the responsibility for setting the bar a bit too high has to go to the network."
Fox, helped also by New Girl and a strong World Series, is up about 15% in viewers and young adults compared with last year. X Factor will return for a second season next fall.
Creatively, Cowell says he's pleased, especially with the level of talent and type of contestants. Three finalists — Melanie Amaro, Josh Krajcik and Chris Rene — are competing for a $5 million recording contract. The winner will be revealed Thursday.
"I think it's been really, really, really good," he says. "Compared to the first season we made in England, which was horrific … the first American show was a million times better."
MJ Santilli, whose MJ's Big Blog (mjsbigblog.com) follows X Factor, white jackets for men Idol and other shows in the genre, offers a harsher assessment. "I'm not feeling a whole lot of buzz for the show at all," she says. "I think they made it too much about the judges and took the focus off contestants."
The show also focused too much on the prize, rather than the "aspirational" aspect, which she says is part of Idol's appeal. "I think Simon is going to have to do some major retooling," she says.
Cowell does promise changes, and he hopes, over time, to hit the elusive 20-million mark. For one, he wants to work on the groups category, whose competitors were quickly eliminated.

They threaten the use of that militia if they don't get their way

But violence continues to roil the Mideast nation,cheap moncler jackets and its political destiny is far from certain.

Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta and other top U.S. officials conducted a low-key ceremony on a military base at the Baghdad airport Thursday, furling the flag to signal the official conclusion of one of the most divisive wars in American history.

PHOTOS: U.S. military formally ends mission in Iraq

Panetta did not address the controversial origins of the conflict or Iraq's continuing troubles. Instead, he paid tribute to the sacrifices of U.S. troops, nearly 4,500 of whom were killed and 32,200 wounded since President George W. Bush ordered the March 2003 invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

"To be sure, the cost was high — in blood and treasure for the United States and for the Iraqi people," Panetta told about 200 troops and a few Iraqi officials during the 45-minute ceremony. "But those lives were not lost in vain: They gave birth to an independent, free and sovereign Iraq."

Only two U.S. bases and about 4,000 troops remain in Iraq, the rear guard of a force that was more than 170,000 strong at the height of the war and once controlled hundreds of bases. The last of the troops will leave this weekend, officials said.

About 200 U.S. military personnel will stay in Baghdad to administer arms sales and other limited military exchanges as members of the U.S. diplomatic mission.

After more than eight years of security efforts, employees of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad say they still find it too dangerous to work in the country outside the campus-like Green Zone, a fortified area hidden behind a series of towering walls.

But there is no sanctuary from the sectarian divisions that remain a source of instability.

The Shiite Muslim-dominated government of Prime Minister Nouri Maliki is riddled with corruption, divided and often dysfunctional. Resentment moncler for men - Cheap Moncler Jackets continues to simmer among the Sunni Arab minority that ran Iraq during Hussein's days and is now politically marginalized.

Some Sunnis are urging secession, or at least a state within a state similar to the Kurdish-controlled region in northern Iraq.

The government also faces continuing problems with private Shiite militias, some with close ties to Shiite-run Iran. Muqtada Sadr, the virulently anti-American cleric whose militiamen have fought and killed U.S. troops, controls the Promised Day Brigade in open defiance of Iraq's new constitution. His party holds 40 seats in parliament.

"They threaten the use of that militia if they don't get their way," Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey S. Buchanan, chief spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, says of the Sadrists. "It's an affront to Iraq's sovereignty. And potentially what you have is a government within a government."

The violence also goes on — by some estimates, an average of 30 bombings and other attacks each week and about 10 deaths a day. That death toll is roughly 20% of what it was during the worst days of the

Shiite-Sunni warfare in 2006.

More than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, according to Iraq Body Count, a website that has tracked the war. About 12% died at the hands of American forces and the rest in terrorist attacks, sectarian violence and extrajudicial executions.

The security of civilians is now the responsibility of Iraqi troops and police, visible on virtually every major street in Baghdad, searching passing cars and patrolling avenues. More than a year ago, they took over security responsibilities after U.S. forces withdrew from Iraq's cities cheap moncler boots.

Did you see where NBA commissioner David Stern killed the Chris Paul-to-L.A.

Stern, in a move of desperation, killed the Paul-to-L.A cheap moncler jackets finder. trade Thursday, but he and the owners should have had some backbone during the lockout and gone to the wall to implement an NFL-type franchise tag and/or hard salary cap that would have made it almost impossible for superstar players to leave the teams that drafted and developed them.

The lockout was settled because the owners successfully won a bigger share of the NBA's billions. Translation: Magic and the Cavaliers, even if they lose their star players, will still make a ton of money. And so will the players.

But what about the fans in markets like Orlando, New Orleans, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Sacramento, et al? You know what they get? They get diddlypoo. They get to see their favorite players – players whom they invested their hearts and their wallets into – leading the Knicks, Lakers and Heat to championships.

Dan Gilbert, the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers, put it best in an e-mail to Stern earlier this week.

"When," Gilbert wrote, "will we just change the name of 25 of the 30 teams to the Washington Generals?"

Short stuff: ESPN reported Thursday that Dwight Howard has requested a trade to the New Jersey Nets. Sports Illustrated has reported that no he hasn't. One Orlando TV station is reporting that Dwight Howard's father will ask the Magic to trade him. This is the same Orlando TV station that reported a few months ago that Dwight Howard would sign a new deal with the Magic. And then there's another Orlando TV reporter who showed up at retiring Magic CEO Bob Vander Weide's retirement press conference and grilled him on a late-night phone conversation he recently had with
giubbotti moncler Dwight Howard. The TV reporter read from a supposed transcript of the conversation that, in reality, was taken word-for-word from a fictional parody of the Howard-Vander Weide phone conversation written on the offbeat sports website Deadspin.com. And you wonder why nobody trusts the media anymore. …

Did you see where NBA commissioner David Stern killed the Chris Paul-to-L.A. trade? Hmmmm, I'm wondering if the Magic can petition Stern to retroactively kill the T-Mac-to-the-Rockets deal for Steve Francis. … Considering all he has done for the school, how about renaming UCF's football facility John C. Hitt Field at Bright House Networks Stadium? …. Geez, my Christmas tree is already shedding its needles. I think Harvey Updyke, the crazy Alabama fan, poisoned it. … Charlie Weis leaves Florida after one pathetic year as the offensive coordinator and takes over the head-coaching job at Kansas. In memoriam, all Gainesville-area Krispy Kremes are flying their flags at half-staff. … My Heisman ballot: (1) Robert Griffin III, (2) Andrew Luck, (3) Trent Richardson. …

Marketing motto for new UCF defensive coordinator Ted Roof: "With Roof in charge, there is no ceiling!" … PR advice for Bob Vander Weide, who said he recently called Dwight Howard late one night after playing paddle tennis with friends and having two glasses of wine. Paddle tennis? Chardonnay? Who were the friends – Duffy, Biff and Reginald? Next time, Bob, here's what you say: "It was no biggie. I hit up D-12 after downing a couple of brewskis while playing poker with my homeys – Spike, Sweet Tea and Chico." … Mikey likes: Fish over Eagles by 5, Tebows over Bears by 6, Bucs over Jags, er, Jags over Bucs, er, nevermind,
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