The only thing more depressing than watching contestants get cut from "X Factor" auditions is watching them get through.
The show, which debuted Wednesday after years of plotting, is about money, not music. Specifically, it's about exploiting the financial straits of its frequently desperate contestants.
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Almost every one of the successful performers on the first episode mentioned money as a motivation – and many truly seemed to need it, from a 42-year-old single mother who wants to send her son to school to a trash hauler and recovering drug addict trying to provide stability for his own boy.