We’re Only Having Three Judges On X Factor Australia This Year

Now they can’t sit on the fence during the verdict show

This was definitely not PhotoShopped together, they were all in the same room when this photo was taken

As we hypothesised a month ago, this year’s season of X Factor Australia will only have three judges.

We suggested three main possible ways to make the season shorter:

• Revert back to the original format — three judges, not four; three categories: Under 25s (as opposed to separate categories for Under 25 Boys and Under 25 Girls), Over 25s, and Groups.
• Have four judges bring two acts each to the finals, resulting in a top eight
• Everyone kicks one act out in the first week of the live shows

We polled you, and y’all said “yes! Let’s just have three judges!”

This morning, with the announcement of Adam Lambert joining the show as a judge, it’s been confirmed that we’re indeed only going to have three judges for the 2016 season — Guy Sebastian, Iggy Azalea, and Adam Lambert.

Guy Sebastian told a news website of some repute:

“I’m not sure if we had the right panel last year, that we had the right chemistry… it just didn’t quite feel like it gelled, so I think the change is good. It will be quite a different show … There will be a lot of changes, but the core of my job stays the same in that I’m there to mentor.”

First of all: take that, Blunty and Isaac.

Second: Guy reckons there’ll be a lot of changes. This is obvious, since the show is only doing a month of live shows; something had to change, and having fewer judges means fewer contestants in the live shows, and by extension, a shorter season.

It also means that, come the Live Verdict shows, the judges are going to have to actually express an opinion and make a decision rather than just throw their vote away to force a deadlock. You can’t have a tie when there’s two acts to vote for and three people voting!

(yes, I know this is from the UK series, let’s just use our imaginations and pretend that’s Lukey Dookey in the middle)

It’ll definitely work in the judges’ favour in the same way Deal or No Deal benefitted from going from 26 Dealettes to just three, as Deal host Andrew O’Keefe told that same news website as before:

“We’ve always had great fun having 26 Dealettes and it was an icon statement about the show, but strangely, it almost seems more glamorous and sophisticated having fewer girls and getting to know them well.”

Are you happy with the new, more concise judging panel?