8:17am Monday 20th August 2007
By Caron Kemp
So the X Factor is back on our screens. Nasty-but-somehow-endearing Simon Cowell can shatter people’s dreams once again as we watch a nobody get plucked from obscurity to secure a £1 million
recording contract before being dropped and labelled a one-hit wonder.
This in itself doesn’t bother me. Such is the fickle nature of the British public that we love someone one minute and forget them the next.
What does bother me is the rest of the programme.
Firstly, I feel very uneasy that the age has been lowered to 14. So now children can parade in front of judges to embarrass themselves and have to live with the consequences of nationwide
humiliation. Or if these minors actually end up being quite good, we get to potentially change their life so they can stand on stage wearing not a lot and be ogled over by the opposite sex when they
should be in school getting the best educational start to life. Why oh why Cowell and is entourage felt the need to expose kids to this rollercoaster in one of the most damaging and dangerous
industries is beyond me.
I am also annoyed by the amount of awful people that get air time on this show. It’s not a very well kept secret that these contestants have been through three or four stages of judgement
before they meet the celeb judges. The production company seemingly do this to sift out the riff raff and ensure only the best – or seemingly worse – people get through the bit we see. So
you have these people, young and old, who clearly cannot sing for love nor money getting through stage after stage of judging with their confidence building up. And why? Because the production
company don’t care about their feelings, they just want to create a great show.
Think about it. 50-something cleaner enters because singing has always been her dream and this is her opportunity to realise it. She gets selected for audition, gets to meet the backstage team,
passes three stages, gets told she is good enough, and revels in meeting Cowell and co. Cue cameras and Cowell lays into her for being horrendous – or words to that effect – while the
others giggle profusely. I didn’t make this up, it happened in episode one.
It’s a sad state of affairs that this is what reality TV calls for.
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