Idol Chatter & Voice Views

FOX couldn’t have screwed tonight up worse if it tried.

The baseball game between the Cardinals and Giants gets delayed.

So FOX cuts to a half-hour comedy called “Ben and Kate” that’s very stupid and has just one redeeming feature — Lucy Punch and her adorable accent.

Once that ends, they start a 2-hour episode of The X Factor, knowing full well they plan to resume the baseball game at some point.

Sure enough, we’re well over halfway through The X Factor when they find out baseball will resume at 10:05 p.m.

So, in the most baffling decision of all, they switch to another program for about 5 minutes, then back to baseball.

Had FOX started the judges’ mansion episode as soon as the rain delay began, we could have seen most — perhaps all — of The X Factor.

Of course, this wouldn’t even be a problem if The X Factor didn’t take two hours to do what could easily be accomplished in one.

Now FOX plans to air the full episode of The X Factor on Tuesday at 8 p.m., going head to head with The Voice.

Guess which show my TV will be tuned to?

Here’s a hint. I won’t be enduring two hours of Simon Cowell produced pseudo drama.

Update: It gets better and better. FOX kept running The X Factor for several more minutes in some markets, until realizing it was spoiling all the drama for a nationwide broadcast next Tuesday and decided to pull the plug again.