"The X Factor" Finale Part 2: Paging Brian Dunkleman

I have never hosted a show on national television. But I have seen enough competition show finales to know what a host should do when it comes to the final moments of the season—get out of the way. Unfortunately, no one shared that with Steve Jones…

WOW! How bad were those final moments of “The X Factor” tonight? I admit, I didn’t watch the entire show. After last night’s hot mess, I just couldn’t stand it. But I wanted to see who won and I tuned in for the last 20 minutes. And if I had been watching all season long, I would have felt severely cheated.

Before I start ripping the show apart, let me first congratulate Melanie Amaro. I liked Josh and Chris, but she deserved to win. I still have ZERO idea what Simon was thinking when he sent her home. I look forward to seeing her Pepsi commercial during the Super Bowl.

Now, back to the ripping…

In his conference call a few weeks ago, Steve Jones said that the director was constantly yelling in his ear telling him what to do. If that was the case tonight, then the director needs to be fired right along with Steve because the two of them did what you NEVER do in a season’s closing episode—they stepped on the winning moment.

Steve announced Melanie’s name and she went into shock. But we completely missed Simon Cowell’s joyful reaction, which would have been nice to see since we’re so used to seeing Simon’s surlier attitude. And then, just as Simon barely got his arms around Melanie, Steve started asking for them to break it up so he could talk to her and asking for Josh and Nicole to get out of the way. He never paused to let Melanie soak it all in—even for just a second. And after seeing the show’s awkward ending, when Steve approached Melanie AGAIN for a comment, it’s obvious that there was plenty of time for that pause to occur.

I totally understand that the show must move on, but there are better ways to do it. Have you ever seen Ryan Seacrest tell people to stop hugging? Have you ever seen Tom Bergeron kick people off the stage so he can talk? No, because these guys are live show pros. Even Brian Dunkleman handled it better in the first season of “American Idol.”

Maybe Simon should look Dunkleman up for next year…

So what did you guys think? Are you happy with the winner? And what do you think needs to be changed before next year?

Discuss…

And I’ll have more from Melanie after she talks to the media tomorrow…