"X Factor" Shocker: Why Paula?

Last night when I left you guys, Steve Jones and Nicole Scherzinger were both out at “The X Factor.”

So when I scanned the subject lines in my email inbox this morning, I was surprised to see one that said, “You’ll never guess who’s not returning to ‘X Factor.” I couldn’t figure out how anyone could be surprised that Steve and Nicole were gone…

And then I saw the words that explained what they meant. Simon Cowell had fired Paula Abdul.

Nope. I wouldn’t have guessed that one…

So what’s going on here? My best guess is that Simon is angry. He’s angry that he didn’t best “American Idol” and he’s pulling out all the stops to do it next season. But why take his anger out on Paula?

“The Hollywood Reporter,” which originally reported the story that Paula had been let go, speculates that Paula was irrelevant last season. And since all of her groups were eliminated early, I could agree with that. But that wasn’t her fault. Not enough decent groups auditioned and Paula was stuck with a bunch of hodgepodge groups stuck together at the last minute.

There’s also speculation that Simon was looking for some freshness instead of reminding viewers of his relationship with Paula. That may be true, but I don’t like it. Paula was a good mentor and judge and she deserved another season. “The X Factor” has a lot of issues, but Paula was not one of them.

By the way, it looks like L.A. Reid will be staying on as a judge, which makes sense since he and Simon stirred up most of the drama.

So who will fill the empty chairs? I still say Mariah Carey plays in there somewhere. Kelly Rowland has also been rumored as a possibility…

What do you guys think? Do you even care about “The X Factor” anymore without the Simon-Paula dynamic?