Sunday 22 November

BLOGS

blogCategory
 
Back to blog
Next

The X Factor: week one

X Factor judges Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole, Dannii Minogue and Louis Walsh
  • Posted at 1:20pm
  • 24 August 2009
  • by JackSeale-RT
  • 10 comments

The X Factor likes to start each series with a little crisis. Remember Louis Walsh being sacked and rehired? This year it was Simon Cowell suddenly getting bored of singers singing in a closed room, and switching to tryouts in packed live venues. It sounded like media-friendly theatrics, but it's changed the auditions completely.

The show has never properly dealt with concerns about deluded auditioners who are chosen for humiliation, paraded for our entertainment. But the derision used to arrive months later, in distant living rooms and on sarcastic, readerless blogs.

Now, people like The Dreamgirls have 2,500 X Factor fans howling at them while they try to sing. Hopes are shattered instantly. The Dreamgirls were two confused Lithuanians who tunelessly mooed Robbie Williams's Angels, a disaster lightened only when one of them did an excellent Cilla Black impersonation by mistake. The crowd shredded them.

The baiting wasn't the only problem. We used to be able to concentrate forensically on the contestants' voices, but now we're listening for the audience. Will that false note get whistled? Was that a round of applause starting? The hoopla distracted from Stacey Solomon, a sunny teen mum from Dagenham. It would have been nice to enjoy her authoritative, soulful voice on its own.

Mostly, this new X Factor decided that ordinary people singing are a bit dated. It dispatched them in lots of those montages where we only glimpse each hopeful, intercut with various expressions on Simon's face. (A face that mysteriously seems slightly different every time it's on TV. This version is puffy.)

The live audience was the star, so the focus was on those who played to it. John and Edward, two Dublin kids who together formed the duo "John and Edward", shamelessly wound up the crowd, wearing the same school-uniform costumes Busted sported seven years ago. ("They look like pop stars!" said Louis, alert as ever.)

They were a useless act, but at least they embraced the show's new dimension. Even better were Glasgow's Kyle Campbell and London electrician Nathan Leslie, who couldn't sing but who verbally slapped the judges down for pointing this out - futile in an empty studio, but glorious if two and a half thousand people are laughing with you.

In comparison to them, successful applicants - like Joseph McElderry, a Geordie with too much vibrato who should have entered Any Dream Will Do? instead, and earnest soulster Duane Lamonte, who sang a cappella like everyone used to and did it superbly - seemed stale.

But combining the best of both, with a fistful of pink sugar on top, was Danyl Johnson. He was a teacher, he was cute, he did the Joe Cocker version of With a Little Help from My Friends at full volume. But he also tossed the mic from hand to hand, got the audience waving and could wink at Cheryl Cole and hit a high C at the same time. Danyl was a bit much, but in the new X Factor, he's ideal.

Link to this post
Post a comment | 10 comments

Comments

  • Posted on 10 October 2009
  • at 7:14pm
  • by Daddy48

Success has a smell, a flavor, a feel. ,

  • Posted on 30 August 2009
  • at 4:43pm
  • by MazY

I didn't think it possible, but the X-Factor has actually managed to become even more vacuous than ever before.

It never was quality television, but as others have already pointed out in their comments, it is now so stuffed with filler and ads that it takes liberties with the time of the viewer. When you actually dissect the show, you realise how little of the acts you really get to see. I suspect that the 'judges' get more time on screen than the acts. I no longer find it entertaining and so won't be tuning in further.

  • Posted on 29 August 2009
  • at 10:37am
  • by ScottyGal

A friend of mine had tix for the Glasgow auditions so I went along with her, sceptical about the new format. I have to say it was a great show actually being there, I thoroughly enjoyed it! However when I saw it being televised I agree with what others have said on here. It appears that the new format works really well as an audience member, but is lacking something as a home viewer. I only hope they show more of the actual contestants, as there were several I was certain would be televised but didn't get shown.

  • Posted on 28 August 2009
  • at 11:28am
  • by leithh

I have never been able to watch the auditions in the X Factor - I prefer the final stages. This new format sounds awful and very much like BGT - has Cowell made a big mistake?

  • Posted on 25 August 2009
  • at 11:02pm
  • by Julie

I have watched and enjoyed the X Factor since it first started and now feel I must comment on the ridiculous changes to the programme.

Firstly we were subjected to what was no more than a six minute trailer for the programme before the first break. Most of the advertising breaks lasted about five minutes and there were so many that we were left with roughly about fifty minutes of "programme". In addition, we got to see only a handful of acts - partially at that; and the final act was so contrived as to be laughable. The rest of the time was used in having Dermot O'Leary telling us what had happened and what was going to happen, and shots of screaming audience members.

This formula may be one that is successful in the USA but is not one that works here; we do not need "dumbing down" to and we certainly do not need some vacuous presenter continually telling us what we are about to see/what we have seen with swirling cameras taking long shots of the queue outside and the audience within.

Unfortunately this appears to be a growing trend in TV land; however, all that has been delivered is couple of hours of boredom. With regard to the X Factor, I for one will not be watching any more.

  • Posted on 25 August 2009
  • at 6:45pm
  • by Joesph

All I want to know is where are all the X buzzers gone?

  • Posted on 25 August 2009
  • at 1:26pm
  • by kinskaloid

After all the tears of last seasons X-Factor...how long will it be before someone commits suicide because of the public humiliation, and the whole format becomes up for debate? Or are contestants really that unaware??

  • Posted on 24 August 2009
  • at 9:03pm
  • by sixtysomething

I was really disappointed with the format of the XFactor and thought it was too much like Britains Got Talent. However, I suppose we'll all slavishly switch on every week.

  • Posted on 24 August 2009
  • at 8:01pm
  • by lizzie

There seemed to be a lot of "bulk up" material and certainly not enough emphasis on the contestants themselves. In fact, at one time, all we saw was a succession of blurred images of contestants who had presumably got through to the next stage. No use to us viewing at home.

  • Posted on 24 August 2009
  • at 7:26pm
  • by Bazbear

The backstage family coverage is like something from the Jeremy Kyle show.

Post a comment

Do you have something to say about this post? Share your thoughts…

Post a comment

(first or nickname only)

Please do not include any personal or personally identifiable information about yourself or others (including email addresses). All information you submit about yourself or others can be viewed by others.

Thank you for your comment

Thank you for your comments. All comments will be looked at by a moderator, however, due to the numbers of comments we receive, we can't promise that all will be posted on the site.

Post another comment

More


Advertisement