Xtra talented or Xtra rubbish? It's up to you... (The X Factor)

Member Name: crazyminx

Product:	The X Factor
Date:	08/12/08 (228 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Brilliant singers, funny auditions, great judging panel

Disadvantages: Too much repetition used in the audition rounds

The X Factor is one of my favourite TV shows, and has become a staple of ITV's autumn/winter schedule, showing every Saturday night from September to just before Christmas. It is hosted by the lovely Dermot O'Leary and is always followed by The Xtra Factor, a behind-the-scenes show, on ITV2.

How it works:
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The X Factor is basically a singing contest that anyone (and I mean ANYONE!) who is over 14 can enter. The first round consists of auditions all over the country, and there tends to be around 100 to 150 thousand applicants. The first part that we see on TV is these applicants performing in front of the four main judges, but in fact prior to this there are many vetting procedures and pre-auditions in front of the producers that we do not see. Only the best and worst auditionees get through to the filmed part in front of the four judges. We see a few weeks worth of auditions, featuring some brilliant singers and some truly awful ones, often accompanied by amusingly pushy family members.

After the auditions, those who got through progress to boot camp, where over the course of a couple of days they sing various allocated songs, and the judges whittle them down to just a few. Next, each judge is allocated a category of performers, and the 6-8 performers left in that category go on to the next round at the judges' houses.

The categories are Boys, Girls, Over 25s (both sexes), and Groups. 3 of each (sometimes 4) are selected to go through to the live shows, where each week they all sing a song (often along a theme, such as Abba), and the public votes for their favourite. The 2 least favourites have to perform again for the judges, who then pick their favourite act to stay. This continues until there are 5 acts left, at which point the public vote is all that matters and the judges can no longer vote.

Judges:
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The judges include:

Simon Cowell - the incredibly well known Mr Nasty of the music business, who came to public attention in Pop Idol and whose company SyCo produces The X Factor. He is my favourite judge - harsh sometimes, but usually fair, and always gives compliments when they are due. He won with Steve Brookstein in 2004 and Leona Lewis in 2006.

Louis Walsh - the Irish music manager responsible for Westlife, Boyzone, etc. He tends to be quite set in his opinions and can be quite cruel. He often gives his acts quite dated songs to sing, though he has done well with the group JLS this year, and he won with Shayne Ward in 2005.

Danni Minogue - ex pop-star and sister of Kylie, she won last year with Leon Jackson. She is nice if a little bland as a judge and rumour has it she may be replaced next year.

Cheryl Cole - a new judge this year, Cheryl has been surprisingly good at both judging and mentoring. She is honest without being cruel and of course she looks gorgeous every week! She seems quite involved with her acts, more so than the other judges, and appears to act a bit like a big sister to them.

Previously Sharon Osbourne was a judge on the show, but she left last year and is now judging for America's Got Talent.

Advantages of the Show:
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* The auditions and boot camp stages are great fun, as you can participate in the judging, trying to decide who should go through and whether the judges will agree with you.
* You get to see some truly bizarre and funny acts in the first stage.
* The live shows contain some brilliant performances and can introduce you to up and coming stars.
* Once you've picked your favourite, it becomes very tense, waiting to see if they will be voted out or not.
* The judges always keep things interesting and can have some funny arguments between themselves.
* It is unpredictable; sometimes the act who has been favourite to win does not (such as Rhydian last year).

Disadvantages:
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* We are shown too many rubbish people and not enough of the good people during the audition stages. There's only so many bad Elvis impersonators you can laugh at.
* During the audition stages, the show uses so many 'Coming Up' segments and recaps that it gets really annoying, and you can't help wishing they'd show more actual auditions instead.
* Sometimes your favourite gets voted out and then vanishes into obscurity (such as Tabby for me in the first season).

Winners:
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Previous winners of the show have ranged from relatively unsuccessful, to hugely, internationally successful. They consist of Steve Brookstein (had one album which did OK, then decided to manage himself and we've heard little of him since), Shayne Ward (a brilliant, good looking singer who's been quite successful), Leona Lewis (an amazing singer who is now phenomenally, record-breakingly successful in many countries including the US) and Leon Jackson (who's really just getting started). Only yesterday, Leona set her latest record for the fastest selling digital release ever with her new single 'Run', a cover of the Snow Patrol classic. Non-winners of the show such as G4, Journey South, Rhydian, Same Difference, etc, have also done well.

Current Series:
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In the current series we are awaiting next week's finale, where Alexandra, Eoghan and the boy group JLS will fight it out for the prize of a million pound record contract. Alexandra is a 20 year old professional, sleek performer with a huge voice, mentored by Cheryl. Eoghan is a 16 year old mini pop star in the making who is mentored by Simon. JLS is a great vocal harmony group with a lead singer, Aston, who has a great voice. They are mentored by Louis, do some great performances with cool dance routines, and are my favourite to win now that Diana has been voted out.

After the show the winner will release a single which will, of course, become the Christmas number one!

If you've never seen The X Factor before, then why not tune in next week? The final will be awesome and if you like it then you can watch from the beginning next series!

Summary: An awesome show that should continue as long as there's untapped talent around