I happened to stumble across a repeat of x-factor yesterday afternoon and was compelled to watch (rather like rubber necking a car crash). What I saw was some young girl singing some random pop song … she was horribly out of tune.
This was supposed to be some kind of studio stage where I presume the contestants have been vetted and should be “good”, so I was surprised by how bad she was. Three of the judges kindly called her performance “nice” or “nervous”, but when Simon Cowell simply said she was flat, he got booed. This was the plain truth … she was flat.
What does this show actually achieve? Are we to congratulate mediocrity and put it on a pedestal just because there was no-one better?
I also believe that the x-factor transmits some kind of hypnotic sub-conscious image stream which mixes your brain waves and fixes your eyes on the screen, rendering you unable to switch channels. It wasn’t until my wife came in, horrified by my vegetative state, that I was able to turn it off and do something less boring instead …
