Has It Got The X Factor Back?

Despite being an fan of The X Factor in previous years, this time out has left me cold.  I half heartedly watched the first two weeks and then for the next three I didn’t watch at all.  I’m not entirely sure what that is down to; the change to having a live audience at the initial auditions was a terrible decision, which changed the whole feel of the show, but I don’t know if it is down to more than that.  I think I’ve just about reached my limit of being able to watch bad auditions and seeing people being humiliated; this happening in front of a baying crowd has only highlighted the cruelty.  Perhaps, I’ve just fallen out with the show all together.

Last night’s episodes were the first of the boot camp stage and so it felt an appropriate time to give it another go and see if I could salvage my love for cheesy talent shows.  It’s not a good start.  There’s a full ten minutes of padding before anything  actually happens and I’m thankful that I had Sky Plussed it.   This is perhaps a bit of a harsh criticism as it’s always been full of padding.  In my post from last Novemeber, X-Rated, I revealed that I managed to watch the four televised hours of X Factor shows one Saturday night in 90 minutes – and that was with me paying attention.

Eventually, they did get around to some singing, and the first batch of  auditionees that they showed were absolutely awful.  How they got through the first  round is anybody’s guess.  I can only assume that presence of the live audience skewed the judges objectivity.  With the dross out of the way, we did manage to see some better singers, although not recognising many of the contestants meant that I didn’t feel very  invested in whether they went through or not.

It was vaguely amusing to see John and Edward again, but within about 30 seconds the joke fell flat, they’re just a pair of cocks.  It’s one thing to be ‘shit but funny’, but the identical twins were just plain old shit.  Remarkably, they didn’t get booted out right away because Louis liked them.  Unsurprisingly, they were Irish.

At this stage, I was still pretty uninterested and a fair amount of fast  forwarding happened.  Before I know it they announce who is in the top 50.  Like every other year we get to see scenes of  the successful jumping up and down like chimps and the unsuccessful crying like they’ve just been told that their dog is dead.  These bits are equally annoying every year.

Over on ITV2, The Xtra Factor remains the superior show and Holly Willoughby remains exceptionally lovely.  Apart from her obvious loveliness, I think that she is one of the best presenters currently on TV and has made the show her own.  She’s so good that I’m getting increasingly worried that she’ll be promoted to the main show, which would be good for her bank balance but would be the viewers loss; the presenter of the ITV1 programme really has so little to do.

Overall, I definitely enjoyed ‘Boot Camp’ more than any of the earlier shows, so perhaps things are looking up.  There does seem to be some very strong competitors this year, but then it seems that way every year and by the time it gets to the live shows most of them turn crap.  We’ll have to wait and see.  Part two of boot camp is tonight, so I’ll see you there.