IF you're enjoying X-Factor this time round then you are probably not blessed with full hearing. Harsh and unfair I know, so mark that down as an attempt at hangover humour.
But you probably haven't read Ben Elton's Chart Throb book, which is supposedly the story of a TV singing show which superceded and copied to a T the X-Factor, but which, when you read it, inevitably leads you back to the real thing.
Bascially it suggests the whole thing is rigged to get the maximum number of viewers, that the judges care only about their public profile and that the contenders are only picked because of their back story, rather than their ability to sing.
Now while there can be no suggestion X-Factor is rigged (unless, of course, someone actually thought Gareth Gates would have a long and happy career), or that the judges are only in it for the profile (after all, Danni Minogue's career was going so well....) you have to wonder how this rag, tag and bob-tail collection of possible stars has been assembled.
I have watched two rounds so far, and it's the first time I've ever done that before the last couple of weeks of the series, so maybe that's why. Perhaps Leona Lewis, Will Young et al were all as bad as the current crop are early on.
Watching Simon Cowell having to decide whether to send home his assembled-at-the-auditions boyband (who, when dressed in ill-fitting suits look as though they're due to attend youth court) or his assembled-at-the-auditions girlband (who had danced provocatively and, sure enough, got the vote) was excuciating. It was a hard call, he said. No it bloody wasn't. Send both of the groups home. That's fair. Particularly on us.
At the moment, the only people who seem to believe their are stars before their eyes are the judges. Even the audience seems to get bored at times. Shayne 'I'm big in South Africa' Ward has admitted only one of the acts he reckons can make it all the way. Which, putting the irony of Shayne Ward talent spotting to one side, is at least proof from someone who's been through the system about how bad the current lot are. Wake me up at the final.
PS: Just spotted this on tonight's telly listings: Funniest Ever You've Been Framed (ITV 1, 5.40pm). Is it possible that, after countless series spanning the best part of two decades, the producers have finnaly realised there are only so many times a woman falling off a swing into a river is amusing?
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »