The Voice has lived in the shadow of American Idols and Simon Cowell’s X Factor for two seasons. However, while Idol still dominates the ratings, The Voice is giving Cowell a run for his money. 

        The judges on the shows are celebrities. They range from The Voice’s country singer Blake Shelton, to X  Factor’s British music executive Simon Cowell. Adam Levine is the lead singer and main songwriter for Maroon 5 and is also a judge on The Voice.

       “Adam Levine [is my favorite judge] because of Maroon 5,” sophomore Rachel Walcott, The Voice fan, said. “I think he gives better criticism than Simon. He gives more constructive criticism.”

        X Factor judge, Simon Cowell, is responsible for the careers of artist such as One Direction and Leona Lewis, and he has two multi-award winning shows, Britian’s Got Talent and X Factor.

       “I mostly like how Simon relates their singing to something awful and he says what other people are afraid to say,” sophomore Sarah Ludwigsen, X Factor fan, said.

       Cowell’s fellow X Factor judge, Britney Spears, went from Mickey House Club House to her “.  .  . Baby One More Time.”

      “Britney is really funny. I thought she was going to be really nice, but she is not,” Ludwigsen said.

       X Factor’s Spears and The Voice’s CeeLo Green are more than meets the eye. Green is an entertainer and Chief Creative Officer of Primary Wave Music and is one of the largest independent music publishing, marketing and talent management companies in the U.S.

       “I don’t like CeeLo Green [from The Voice], he is very creepy,” Ludwigsen, said. “He sits there and pets his cat while he talks about people. He is super weird.”

       Both show’s coaches are looking for hidden talent, however, the way they judge the next big singer is different.

       The Voice has blind auditions were celebrity judges sit in swivel chairs and are not able to see the contestants. When they like how the contestant sounds, they hit a red button, and the chair turns around so they can see what the contestant looks like. If more than one judge clicks the button, they need to convince the contestant to join their team. The constant has the final say on what judge will be their coach.

       “I think [the constant deciding on their coach] is good because they get to choose who they want to learn from,” Walcott said.

       X Factor places contestants in four different categories: boys, girls, over 30s, or groups. Each team is coached by a celebrity judge who helps them choose a song, what to wear, and what to do in order to become a star.           

      “I would change that they separate the contestants into groups. If I don’t like someone from one group, and I like a lot of people from another group, then my favorite people go home because some groups are harder to get into than others,” Ludwigsen said.

      Both shows are not just about the contestants, but the coaches as well. Cowell’s contestant, Melanie Amaro, won X Factor last year, but L.A. Reid made it a tight race. On The Voice, Levine and Shelton have both won a season, so season three will be a tie breaker, unless Christina Aguilera or Green can come up with a winning contestant

     “We all have each other’s backs when it’s time to,” Shelton told TV Blog, “and we’re stabbing each other in the back when it’s time to.”

      X Factor airs Wednesday and Thursdays 8/7c on Fox, and The Voice is on NBC Mondays and Tuesdays 8/7c. On the premier of the second season of X Factor, The Voice had its third episode airing at the same time.

      “[The Voice does not] want people to see the first episode (of X Factor),” Cowell told reporters in a conference call. “I think it’s mean-spirited, and I hope and I pray it backfires on them.”