After a hectic day of a gym visit, buying some household goods and cleaning my flat (I know how to live!) I find myself yet again on the sofa tuning in to the X Factor. It’s one of those programs I always feel slightly ashamed of watching, but I can’t help myself watching it.
As you’ve probably read in the papers, this year though the viewing figures have dropped. People can’t decide why, is it because Simon and Cheryl are gone? Is the talent not there? Are people bored of the show format? Or do more people have a life now and are actually going out on a Saturday night instead of staying in being boring like me?
Watching the program tonight I think I might have an idea why. Many, if not most, of the contestants just don’t seem believable to me. You’ve got Frankie ‘jack the lad’ Cocozza (how much have they tried to build that reputation?), Kitty – the Lady Gaga wannabe, Janet the pure, quiet little Irish girl, I won’t go on.
Everyone knows the X Factor always says they are looking for something new and different and then they reproduce some manufactured act which fits their predictable mould every time. This year it seems this is even more evident. Most of the singers in the competition to me are not being their true selves and are giving answers they’ve been told to give. They are singing songs they aren’t comfortable with and they’ve had makeovers into characters which they don’t suit them and aren’t true to them.
Now I know that when we see film stars and music acts we aren’t necessarily seeing the true them, but at least the acts that are already famous are believable.
The show is always centred on the judges and becomes a popularity contest, but this year again seems worse. Just watching Kelly Rowland tell people off for having opinions if they dare to disagree with her and Louis Walsh and Gary Barlow bicker, it just makes the show even more of a mockery. As for Alexandra Burke last week, don’t even get me started…
You have a young boy who can’t sing and was staying in the competition based on his fake image the program has tried to create. People start to admit this and then it turns into an argument between the judges to divert away from that fact. At first I was pleased to have Gary Barlow as a judge, someone who would know what they were speaking about and came from the industry and had success. However, I’m starting to think the show might be damaging for his reputation, if anything. Defending a contestant who clearly can’t sing and having petty squabbles with other team members, isn’t the best portrayal of him I’ve seen.
I won’t lie though, after nosing out my window at the local fireworks banging and sparkling outside, I will be tuning into ITV2 for the Xtra Factor to check out the fireworks on screen…
Showing posts with label talent. Show all posts
Showing posts with label talent. Show all posts
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Saturday, 24 September 2011
Nasty Factor
I am sitting here watching X Factor on a Saturday night – sad I know and even sadder that I was pleased I am in tonight to see it. However, I am just so annoyed I had to blog about it.
Recently in the press I saw reports where the X Factor was criticised for an older woman having gone to the auditions four years in a row and always being rejected. People suggested she may not be mentally stable, others hinted that in fact the programme was behind her repeat visits because it was ‘good TV’. I admit I laughed it off and thought it was just another silly story for publicity.
However, on watching tonight’s show, ‘Bootcamp’, where people had been told at their audition they were through to this stage, things have now changed. Before Bootcamp started the judges actually went back and looked through audition tapes and realised that in fact around 40 or so of those they put through, actually weren’t up to the challenge.
Clearly this is a decision to make ‘good TV’ and cause controversy, but surely it gets to a point where people’s lives and feelings need to be considered somewhat? I’m not an actress, singer, or in any way an entertainments type of person. I do however recognise this sort of industry is tough and people need to be prepared for it.
Getting all those people in front of one another and then humiliating those individuals that for some reason all of a sudden aren’t good enough anymore in my opinion is just not right.
Yes in that sort of industry people have to go through various stages of auditioning, tests, callbacks and more. From my knowledge though they are aware of those stages? They have not been told they’ve reached another stage and then before that stage begins they get cut, without any explanation and without a chance to fight for their place.
Three of the judges are in musical groups – do they not remember how tough it was for them and that one person in their life that gave them a break or a chance? No, it’s all about what outfit to wear this week and how many front covers they can get on ready for next week’s show. As each group is coming on stage what is it they are asking – has anybody had any fights over the song choice! Another group sings and one young boy who they all clearly love has been deemed the stand out of that selection – he was so weak!
Already you can get a good idea of who they are looking at to put through – they are smiling at those people within seconds of them singing, or in some cases as soon as they walk on stage or in the room. Not a very fair competition then in my eyes…
I know X Factor has always been – and likely always will be – a show for entertainment and people have complained about it for a long time. I too am now feeling myself join the camp of being anti this show and understanding although people with talent will also feature in it that’s not what the show’s producers are interested in. They want people who are prepared to be humiliated or one side, or on the other be someone who will allow themselves to be moulded and modelled into the exact robotic replica star Mr Cowell and his team need to make their bank balances even bigger.
Recently in the press I saw reports where the X Factor was criticised for an older woman having gone to the auditions four years in a row and always being rejected. People suggested she may not be mentally stable, others hinted that in fact the programme was behind her repeat visits because it was ‘good TV’. I admit I laughed it off and thought it was just another silly story for publicity.
However, on watching tonight’s show, ‘Bootcamp’, where people had been told at their audition they were through to this stage, things have now changed. Before Bootcamp started the judges actually went back and looked through audition tapes and realised that in fact around 40 or so of those they put through, actually weren’t up to the challenge.
Clearly this is a decision to make ‘good TV’ and cause controversy, but surely it gets to a point where people’s lives and feelings need to be considered somewhat? I’m not an actress, singer, or in any way an entertainments type of person. I do however recognise this sort of industry is tough and people need to be prepared for it.
Getting all those people in front of one another and then humiliating those individuals that for some reason all of a sudden aren’t good enough anymore in my opinion is just not right.
Yes in that sort of industry people have to go through various stages of auditioning, tests, callbacks and more. From my knowledge though they are aware of those stages? They have not been told they’ve reached another stage and then before that stage begins they get cut, without any explanation and without a chance to fight for their place.
Three of the judges are in musical groups – do they not remember how tough it was for them and that one person in their life that gave them a break or a chance? No, it’s all about what outfit to wear this week and how many front covers they can get on ready for next week’s show. As each group is coming on stage what is it they are asking – has anybody had any fights over the song choice! Another group sings and one young boy who they all clearly love has been deemed the stand out of that selection – he was so weak!
Already you can get a good idea of who they are looking at to put through – they are smiling at those people within seconds of them singing, or in some cases as soon as they walk on stage or in the room. Not a very fair competition then in my eyes…
I know X Factor has always been – and likely always will be – a show for entertainment and people have complained about it for a long time. I too am now feeling myself join the camp of being anti this show and understanding although people with talent will also feature in it that’s not what the show’s producers are interested in. They want people who are prepared to be humiliated or one side, or on the other be someone who will allow themselves to be moulded and modelled into the exact robotic replica star Mr Cowell and his team need to make their bank balances even bigger.
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