TV Series: Has The X Factor Officially Lost the Plot?

Looking a little blurry and I don't blame them

I must admit to voting with my remote. I did this another year too, the year that both Kerrianne Covell, whose incredible version of I Know You Won't was far superior even to Carrie Underwood’s, and Melanie McCabe, whose rendition of Titanium was absolutely flawless, were put out at judges' houses but this year everybody who had real singing talent and likeability was rejected before the live shows (bar Matt Terry). I was gutted. Can only imagine how disappointed they were.

The initial blame falls on the other judges (not Simon Cowell) who, you have to assume as a joke, vote against Simon to ensure there are what can perhaps most charitably be termed ‘novelty acts’ at bootcamp. Then, audience reaction, whether good or bad, if voluble enough, might count. Naturally they want high viewing figures and they might think having these acts who could be considered ‘fun’ will attract these but, in doing so, the programme makers have lost sight of the fact that this isn’t Britain’s Got Talent and have turned the show into a joke. There were plenty of beautiful voices at bootcamp, even as far as judges’ houses. And then, in one fell swoop, none.

Then there’s the likeability quotient. It seems that the judges cannot discern this and so leave out the people who have engaging personalities and come across well, such as Samantha Atkinson, Christian Burrows, James Hughes. Here's my assessment of their decisions, only mentioning the mistakes.

Overs – Sharon Osborne

We lost:

Samantha Atkinson, whose performance of Adele’s When We Were Young was outstanding, heartfelt and better than the original and the talented Janet Grogan (both of them on their second attempts).

We kept:

Honey G. I’m sure she’s good at something but it’s not singing.

Saara Alto. Even Sharon can't remember where she comes from. She can sing but is merely a belter, and also slightly frightening. Whether it’s the language barrier or what, I don't know, she comes across as enormously ambitious but otherwise insincere. Sharon even recognises there’s a ‘disconnect’, which there certainly wasn’t with Samantha and Janet.
Relley C. I loved her last time but this time she's been shouty and off key.

Boys – Nicole Scherzinger

First of all I have to say I love Nicole as a judge. She’s a breath of fresh air, unafraid to express her opinion in alternative ways.

We lost:

James Hughes who stunned us with an awe-inspiring I'd Rather Go Blind.

Nate Simpson. His first audition when he sang A Change Is Gonna Come was incredible.

Christian Burrows. He might not have been the best singer but he was extremely likeable and able to invest his delivery with real emotion.

We kept:

Freddie Parker. His voice was ok but he had a little rich boy air that probably didn't appeal to the audience, which is possibly why he didn't last long.

Ryan Lawrie. No voice at all nor any discernible personality but has the requisite silly hair of a popstar these days. Nicole herself had already put him out once, which was the right decision.

Girls – Simon Cowell

We lost:

Kayleigh Marie Morgan, whose version of ‘With You’ was really touching and whose voice has a lovely tone.

We kept:

Samantha Lavery. Commendable of her to go without her make-up but she’s yet another belter. Pretty certainly but not really ready.
Gifty Louise Agyeman. She also seems to have taken to shouting a lot and often sounds out of tune.
Emily Middlemas. She made no impression on me at all.

Groups – Louis Walsh

Louis’s always made bad decisions. Anyone remember Wagner? But this year, he was worse than usual.

We lost:
All the girl groups who were better singers and performers than anyone he did put through.

We kept:

Bratavio. They were funny but they weren't singers.

The result of all this is that I haven't watched any of the live shows this year because I really couldn't stand to hear the acts (a friend watched so I caught some of them but often had to leave the room). Of course, it's all subjective and I'm sure all the acts have fans but I wonder if there are other people out there like me.  I always used to enjoy a Saturday night of X Factor but now I'll either be going out or taking out a DVD instead. I'm sure many of you are thinking 'Get a life', and you'd have a point but I was so annoyed that people who had real talent were denied the opportunity to reach a larger audience. For another blogger's thoughts on The X Factor, see here.