Simon Cowell's Dream 'X Factor' Judge Is Miley Cyrus

The X Factor will wrap its third season in the U.S. this week, and despite a drop in ratings, its finalists are dominating the iTunes charts and racking up significant YouTube views.

“I pray at night for iTunes and YouTube,” X Factor judge and mentor Simon Cowell told Mashable. “It’s a record labels’s dream for songs and video clips to take off online. It's expediting everything we do in the industry."

This is a trend that's been emerging in the reality TV singing competition space, partially thanks to iTunes sales counting as votes for contestants X Factor and The Voice. So though some TV viewers are tuning out, many others are advocating for (or discovering) performers via Twitter and YouTube as well as emptying their digital wallets to buy songs iTunes Read more...