Talent No Longer a Factor?
November 12th, 2009 by Chris Bull
After several years of doing my best to ignore it, about a month ago I was forced to watch an episode of X-Factor. When two adorable little girls ask if you will watch their favourite show with them, who can say no? An hour later, I was already looking forward to next Saturday.
Seems my conversion came at the right time, because never has the show attracted as many column inches, courted as much controversy or polarised viewers as much as it is right now.
So is this due to the higher quality of contestants? Being a newby to the show it is hard for me to say, but no one this year seems to be another Alexandra or Leona. No, this year it is not extraordinary talent that is pulling viewers in, but an extraordinary lack thereof in the form of John and Edward.
Now if we were to take a reality check on this, the only thing this pair should ever win is a Vanilla Ice look-a-like competition, but their gallant efforts and apparently unrelenting resilience to booing and criticism has captured the public’s hearts. Jedward are a draw, pure and simple, and it is perhaps because of the conspicuous lack of talent elsewhere in the X-Factor camp this year that these two provide a welcome distraction.
Simon Cowell, the proverbial Don Corleone of the X-Factor franchise, knows a thing or two about pulling in viewers and this year Jedward has provided him with a dream ticket. He needs to be a bit careful though – when it suited the papers for him to say so, he would proclaim they were terrible, awful, that they should have not come this far. But when he actually got his chance to vote them off….well he couldn’t do that could he, not with viewing figures up 1.8 million on this time last year and the value of advertising slots going through the roof.
Perhaps what Cowell didn’t expect, however, was that last week they would be in the bottom two against, arguably, the most talented singer on the show. If they were up against Lloyd, it would have been wrong to have kept them in, but at least justifiable. Against Lucie, however, it simply demonstrated that the show is no longer about talent.
In the short term, keeping them in was perhaps a shrewd move. The British public see and hear talented singers all day long on the radio, on the TV and on their Ipod. They don’t get to see a couple of lunatics making fools out of themselves every week. It isn’t all that hard to see their appeal.
But Cowell needs to remember what the show is meant to be about. It is meant to be, after all, a talent competition and as it begins to value novelty over talent, it will begin to lose its credibility. Once that happens, any show can begin to go downhill.
It may be hard to imagine that one day the X-Factor may be struggling for viewers, but remember how popular Big Brother was once upon a time?
If the show is to maintain its long-term future it needs to stick to its simple yet brilliant premise of turning an unknown into an international singing superstar, because talent does not go out of fashion nor is it a novelty. And while the papers are lapping this up at the moment, they could easily turn against the show if that suits their agenda.
Ade Stevenson Says:
I guess I thought these sorts of shenanigans have been common knowledge for some time really. Maybe it does have more credibility than I tend to assume
Rob Dyson Says:
X-Factor is WWF Wrestling for the ‘noughties. Simon Cowell is Vince McMahon – the outspoken ‘owner’ of the federation who plays a role, looks outraged when the story suits it, but ultiamtely makes a shedload of cash from whoever wins. And no doubt has shares in all of the contestants’ future forays in recording their music. A tad embarrased about my knowledge of American Wrestling there, but it was “popular in the 80′s” weren’t it.
Kate O Says:
I understand from a business point of view why Simon Cowell did this, but as you pointed out, look what’s happened to Big Brother. Consumers/viewers are getting cleverer, paying more attention and know when they are being deceived. I think this was a very risky move which could prove the beginning of the end of X Factor. We all know it has an element of being ‘set-up’ and we can usually ignore this, until it becomes obvious
Chris Bull Says:
Thanks for all the comments so far, really interesting to hear your views. I think Kate has it bang on – we all expect a little bit of manufacturing to keep things interesting, but when it becomes blatent and the audience are treated like idiots, that is where problems arise.