The X factor

Is it me or is the X factor just a bit rubbish never Ella Henderson left?
There was a time when you would put up with an hour half of padding just for the fact that Ella would belt out another original take on a classic tune. But these days, with Rylan Clark left in the game, it's just a bit of a joke.
Of course the alternative to this, is just turn the TV over or read a good book.
The good news is, there's not long to go until series 9 draws to a close.
With Ella out of the game, it's just left for that boy band union J to clean up and possibly Land this years Christmas number one.
Or with a little luck, someone else will come along and steal Simon Cowell's thunder.
After all, he's been hogging the chart limelight since 2004 with his talent show juggernaut.
The fact that viewers have been turning over or off suggests that folks have just about had enough of this cynical cash-making exercise.
It's not a bad format, but just having a year off would breathe new life into the franchise.

the x factor: We Love Lucy

So Lucy Spraggan has dropped out of TXF. A shame because she was one of the years's most original and engaging contestants, but talk about square peg in a round hole. As indie singer songwriters go, she belonged to an alternate talent contest, not some mainstream, primetime juggernaut designed to find the next One Direction or Adele. Chances are Simon Cowell's show has already found them in Union J and Ella Henderson.
There is a huge gap in the market for intelligent indie X Factor, but while it won't attract the same high viewing figures, it will at least have a degree more integrity.
In that show Lucy Spraggan would have won hands down.
Alas, now she's no longer in TXF, there's a chance her album and single which stood a strong chance of hitting number one will now be blocked from doing so by Cowell's legal team.
Sometimes it sucks being a winner.

The X Factor

'I'm going to have to hurry you!' Dermot O'Leary says this every week having just padded 50 minutes of air time with ex X Factor winners and the latest US starlet over to plug their new album.
The blonde mum with hair by 'Hedge dragged through backwards' - because she's worth it, hopes she's won over the nation, but if she had a degree of sense she'd know one thing: the key demographic who asks a parent or guardian before casting their vote does not want their mum to win The X Factor. He/She'd rather show her parents her Facebook updates than do that, and so we're down to the usual blend of decent talent, boy bands, street acts, solo artists, lovable scousers, cute mums and cannon fodder for the ADD generation.

Even watching the show on fast forward is tiresome, so its a good job Dermot is so entertaining with his matey schtick and likeable cockiness.

Oh well. Only another two months to go until the grand finale when we see who might get a number one before getting dropped by their record label and the deluge of their CDs winding up in an Essex landfill site.

The X Factor

'Louis, i need to know who you're sending home...'
The few million folks still left watching The X Factor were either perched on the edge of their seats as befuddled Irish X Factor judge Louis Walsh tried to reach a decision. I interviewed him once before series one started and he had enough trouble working out what a hypothetical Q and A about world leadership was, so the sublime Dermot O'Leary may as well have asked him to condense Stephen Hawking's Brief History of Time into a 30 second precis.
When he opted for Ibiza loving Essex lad over a 2011 TXF reject, Gary Barlow was so disgusted he walked off. Either that or he remembered he'd left the gas on.
All of the above may have been a desperate attempt to generate viewers, but it remains to be seen whether it works.
As for Louis, i think Dermot should ask him to multiply 9 x 3 for the next show and then badger him for an answer after 58 minutes of filler.

The X Factor

So The X Factor is losing ratings apparently. Simon Cowell's talent search juggernaut has been telling us what Christmas number one to buy since 2004 and suddenly it seems people are less interested than they used to be.
Well, possibly. I think they're just more selective in how they choose to waste two hours of their life each week.
Personally i record it, zip through all the sob stories, the scenes in which pensioners are condescended to, the judges' back stage eating things and the shots of the wannabe stars as kids filmed at their Auntie Beryl's birthday murdering a Mariah Carey track.
That leaves a cosy 10 minutes of music, or eight if you count how mich was featured in one show.
As i have better things to do with my life, like getting rid of toilet limescale with weapons grade bleach, The X Factor cut down suits me just fine.
However, if Steve Brookstein returned, i'd watch that in its entirety.
Easily the most interesting winner because he bumbled his way through the finale and did a vanishing act worthy of a stealth fighter.
The X Factor: take a bow. You've made cleaning the loo a more rewarding Saturday night experience.