So at last we got to see Lorna Simpson’s audition – as part of her valedictory “best bits”. Lorna justified ante-post favouritism to go, and the opinions of the majority of our commenters, by being the first act eliminated from the live shows. Judges voted 2-1 in favour of saving Shelley Smith, who had finished last in Saturday night’s flash vote, instead.
Shelley maintained her day-long position as the bookmakers’ favourite to go when Lorna was revealed as her singoff rival. With two such disposable acts, it wasn’t one I got heavily involved in, though props to Santa Giles, stoney and Luke for suggesting Shelley would win through.
As had been discussed in the comments as today progressed, saving the flash vote loser is a useful way to indicate the new format doesn’t make Sunday a foregone conclusion – and with two acts both presumably considered surplus to requirements, this will have been a painless opportunity to bank at least one save of the Saturday loser.
We at Sofabet believe that producers had done their best for Lorna last night in a bid to get Miss Dynamix in the bottom two. A small but vital clue on second viewing was a shot of Nicole looking up surprised during the early part of Lorna’s rendition of ‘So Emotional’. It set up Nicole’s comment after the song about not remembering who Lorna was before realising she could fill the entire studio with her voice.
Unfortunately, Lorna was out of tune in that early part of the song, which didn’t help get this message across. Having failed to fulfil her role in climbing above Miss Dynamix, she was clearly considered expendable.
It remains to be seen whether, having saved Shelley, they will take her towards the fun, novelty act direction most of us were anticipating for her given the lack of other act occupying that niche.
Do let us know what you think of tonight’s result below.
Thought Gary contradicting himself was hilarious. He praised Shelley and told Lorna she had tuning issues, but still voted off Shelley.
By the way Louis just said on Xtra Factor he thinks Nicholas is most likely of his boys to win for him. No surprise there except that he actually said it.
Yeah, noted that too. But Louis had already voted for Lorna to go – if Gary had also voted for Lorna at that point it would have been 2-0 and Nicole wouldn’t have needed to vote. In Nicole’s deliberations she seemed to give lots of praise for Lorna and then still votes Lorna off. Obvious who they wanted off. Judges deserve some Razzies for their acting. BTW, did anyone see Mrs. O whispering to Louis in a long camera shot just before they came to the judges to give their vote of who to send home? I suspected that Mrs O wouldn’t vote but wondered if she was telling Louis who she really wanted to send home….
week 1 elimination market is a profitable one for me, even though i saw it coming i really wish theyd drop this flash vote, its an epic fail. the saturday viewing figures werte down, and the sunday night suffered massively. A lot of people are really disliking this new system
No real surprise. Her lack of screen time compared to others done for her. XF will be happy with this week. I think Shelley could get a sympathy bounce next week and I’m sure TPTB are confident of getting MD into bottom 2 with that being the case. I’m really assuming only a matter of hundreds of votes separate some acts at this stage.
Some random thoughts:
1) Poor poor Joseph Whelan. He must have watched the show this weekend and seen the 2 overs who were picked over him storm straight to the bottom of the vote. Surely the biggest reason that they didn’t get Miss Dynamix was that Joseph wasn’t there. Spare a thought for Joseph and his boy tonight.
2) Even though they were gunning for Miss D, I never thought they’d go. Just too obvious, too many other contenders, too much uncertainty with the flash vote. The show is in real danger of driving sympathy votes towards them with the pregnancy and if the mums of Britain get behind them, the show may have created a bit of a monster here. They’d be smarter forgetting the pregnancy and just making them look less commercial / competent than their other two groups. May be a value lay for next elimination.
3) Even James Corden was in on it. Asked whether (as a mate of Gary’s) he supported the groups like Miss Dynamix, he replied that he was a fan of Kingsland Road. Clever…. And in Caroline’s interview of Shelley, Miss Dynamix were positioned just behind her, being ignored….we were told to do the same.
4) I wonder if the flash vote is just about revenue? Guessing that most of the votes are at the end of Saturday’s show and the start of Sunday’s, and if the Saturday votes tailed off last year, taking them as separate vote counts may just be about getting more cash in? It’s essentially 2 separate votes a weekend instead of one. In that case, we may be over-analysing what difference it makes. Certainly can’t see anything in one act being more prepared than the other; the other has to be rehearsed anyway, and I stopped believing the sing-off performance counted for much when I found sofabet.
5) Who did I change my view of this weekend? Not Sam B or Hannah – I thought Sam B was more credible before the weekend and still do, now with the relief that the market says the same. Sam B in particular was given a week 1 edit that suggests she has a long journey ahead of her. There are 7 acts sitting within 15-1, and 4 (excluding Lorna) around 50-1 or higher. Has the win market ever been this polarised?
6) I did change my view on Shelley; she was marketed in such a different way to the auditions it was a bit of a shock, and no great surprise that she didn’t get many votes. I thought Luke did better than I expected. He seemed to get a lot of producer love ( I reckon they realised he needed it) and came over well. Also Rough Copy; I agree they were being trialled as whether they could be brought into the mainstream, but for me it was a mess and I’ve topped up my lay on them. They are great at what they do, but it’s not Phil Collins.
Just curious, did anyone spot that they used the same songs for the sing off as last year?
Yes! Remembered Rylan singing ‘One Night Only’, as Shelley singing it made me recall wondering at the time last year whether it was intended to become a comment on the length of Rylan’s X Factor career.
But totally forgot Carolynne sang ‘There You’ll Be’.
How bizarre. Same week, same songs, same order, same save.
Some people have commented on this on Twitter and Rylan has jumped to the show’s defence saying they choose their save me songs. However, I clearly remember Ella saying in an interview she wanted to sing Believe as her save me song…
Work and Bromley FC commitments mean that tonight’s show was the first in this year’s series I’ve seen.
My immediate impression is that Mr Barlow must have some very compromising photographs of a certain soon-to-be father somewhere in his possession because his oft-repeated beefs regarding ‘joke acts’ and deadlock have all been resolved in his favour. This might have lent the show additional credibility but the calibre of the contestants and the range of acts seems way lower and less interesting than in recent years.
Secondly – Abi Alton. Quirky songbirds with acoustics have never really been my bag but her Living On A Prayer was not very tuneful, I’m afraid.
Thirdly – Is Sharon’s behaviour and general demeanour always that strange? Much to my surprise I find myself missing Tulisa and her ‘urban roots’.
Haven’t heard all of the acts but Sam Bailey (?) seems popular, and for a talking point/controversy, Tamera? All round, though, a pronounced lack of big characters or drama, it seems to me. A bit of a shame.
Worth pointing out that Sam Bailey’s performance from last night has roughly double the number of Youtube views than the second highest, which was Rough Copy. Not bad for an Over. It’s the only one I’ve watched – loved it.
If they treat her right, she’ll go on to win. Having Cher on the show tonight was proof that you don’t have to be young to sell records, and Cher can do that with a weird face and everything.
Adding to my thoughts from the ‘Pre-Lives 1-12 Prediction’ thread, where I figured Sam B as TCNO, I think another reason why Sam B, rather than Nic, is the actual understudy to Tamera
will be because of the backlash to the Hungarian winners (pushed and pimped by Syco) of this year’s BGT.
I can’t imagine Syco following up that with a Scottish winner of their flagship series. Nae gonna happen?
A while ago (on the ‘X Factor 2013 Auditions Week 2: The Money’s Down on Abi’ thread) I made the Nicholas McDonald-cum-Leon Jackson connection, reminisced on that year XF series and argued why it was very possible why Nicholas could win this year’s XF.
But I look at the last two winners of X Factor and read: 2011 Little Mix; 2012 James Arthur. Two unlikely looking winners for different reasons; and who needed all kinds of “help” and/or favourable circumstances to push them over the winning line.
They could both be considered XF producer projects. And they were both “credible” winners.
Leon Jackson’s win came in 2007. He’s probably the least talented, least distinguished winner of the lot. 2nd worst would be Steve Brookstein back in 2004? Yes?
I don’t believe XFPTB will hand their 10th anniversary crown to Leon Jackson MK2. It’s a regression. (This danger might help explain the promotion of Sam Callahan, and is why I expect Kingsland Road to become the alpha group).
Tamera as a winner would herald a return to the glory days of Leona Lewis, but reading the links to newspaper stories on threads on this site, it seems the bad news stories keep on appearing. And One Direction and Cher Lloyd have proven to Syco that you don’t need the acts you intend to catapult across the pond to a successful landing in the American market to have actually won Britain’s XF.
If Tamera is still Plan A, then I think Sam B must be Plan B+ by now!
Sam Bailey is the mother of all producer projects to have to try to win this year’s XF! The only two international class talents in the field are Tamera and Sam B+.
The problem with Chris Maloney last year was A) he wasn’t good enough B) his face and image didn’t fit and C) he wasn’t a fully-fledged Syco project (or he was their unintentional Frankenstein).
And I guess Mary Byrne, from a few years ago, reminded the old hands and long memories on the XF production team of an old version of Michelle McManus! Nightmare scenario.
I think if TPTB decide they don’t want to run the risk of tainting the crown with Tamera Foster-ing a Bad Attitude (Exactly what kind of role model is she?) then they will decide to instead make nearly-MILF Sam Bailey the winner.
I think, at the least, she’s on standby.
Ooops! I meant TNCO, not TCNO.
And also I should have put: mother-of-all-makeovers nearly-MILF Sam Bailey…
Ah! Just watched Rough Copy and I get the JLS comparison.
I’ve been blind 🙁
I’m not convinced that they’d want Sam B to win, more likely that they’d prefer an act with the potential to have a 10+ year career after the show.
The judges comments seem to be clipped off what XF post to youtube this year, but you can see them on xfactor.itv.com – Louis talks a lot of trash but I suspect that one line in his comments to Nicholas rang true:
“You’re what this show is all about. Finding somebody, an unknown little kid with an awful lot of talent.”
That doesn’t neccessarily mean Nicholas, but it does mean “not Sam Bailey”.
On the Scottish aspect, I doubt they care .. if the kid can sell records, s/he can sell records.
I take your point, Danny, about lines that producer’s pet Louis says. Amongst his catalogue of clichés come the occasional “inside” comment re XF strategy. I hope the ‘unknown little kid’ isn’t the show storyline for this year.
Of this year’s contestants I’d say Tamera, Abi and possibly Rough Copy have the potential for career longevity.
I think Nicholas fails on that criterion. But I agree with you that does translate as “not Sam Bailey”.
I’ll be stubborn and still believe Sam B is Plan B, because I think she’s the most commercially viable 30+ act they’ve had in the decade of the show, she’s the most talented they’ve had and in her own way she ticks the credibility box in a way and depth that Nicholas could never.
Plus she’s a real splash of a winner.
I took 10/1 for her, so I’m happy with the price and, like the typical amoral gambler, have my fingers crossed that misfortunes befall the better favoured hopes.
My best result is Sam B to win with Nicholas placed in the top 3.
Lol, after that Nicholas teasing about Spandau the official YT channel says: Nicholas McDonald sings True by Duran Duran 🙂
It was ok but not spectacular week for me since I, just like Daniel, didn’t commit big in the sing-off. We were right they are gunning Miss but pre-show market was accurate who is going to end in B2 – it seems that SamB took all the votes (just like Chris last year) and left other overs vulnerable. I wonder where Miss landed, was it 3rd from bottom or higher. With Shelley getting the bigger funnier song she should bounce and Miss should get B2 and get kicked – just like we thought last year with D3, so it’s not over yet.
P.S. I just loved the ‘look at my abs/skinny dipping/I am single’ VT of Sam Callahan, in combination with his song choice ‘Summer of SIXTY-NINE’. Maybe if next week the theme is indeed ‘Movies’ he could sing ‘My HARD will go on’.
In that case I can’t wait for Cheeky Girls week.
Has Tamera’s crowd control barrier staging ever been used before on the show? Looked to me like they were putting her in a prison! Maybe a future role in the musical Chicago?
I fully expect miss dynamix to be lined up for the kill with success this weekend. Shelly will get a birthday bounce and miss D will be toast. Snap up the 7/4 while u can guys
you could have had 9/4 with paddypower on sunday night. Need to be quick.
Quite right an astronomical blunder on my part
3 acts I believe are in this competition for the long haul are Sam Bailey, Nicholas and Rough Copy, making Nicole Scherzinger 1st to lose all acts priced at 6/1 very tempting.
Interesting, just saw the same bet and was thinking about it but then I saw this, sob sob:
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/tv/x_factor/5200044/X-Factor-Tamera-Foster-abandoned-by-dad-on-first-birthday.html
I guess this will be used in her VT since the theme is heartbreak:
‘I met him on my first birthday and never saw him again’: X Factor’s Tamera opens up about father’s abandonment and fears that he will attempt to contact her
However away from the cameras the 16-year-old has spoken out about her heartbreak after her father walked out on her young mother when she was just a baby.
Tamara told The Sun: ‘I don’t know my dad. I met him on my first birthday and he left me a dress, a teddy bear and a pair of gold earrings. I never saw him again.’
Has there been anything overly negative in Tamera’s bad press? A jilted ex bitching would not be too uncommon. I presume journos have dug into her life pretty meticulously at this stage. If the worst has been exposed she hardly comes across as a bad person. In fact when other hopefuls become more scrutinized as they become favourites there may be “bombshells” not revealed yet. She may not be in a bad position.
There’s always the possibility she’ll be accused of bullying a la Misha B – one of the most bizarre events in the X-Factor’s history.
Tamera tweeted pictures of herself smoking cannabis & boasted about it on her old Twitter account. She beat up a schoolgirl, and her current boyfriend dumped his ex after Tamera chased him knowing he was in a relationship.
If these stories were known by the voters she would suffer Misha B status.
However, they have already been reported and haven’t made much of an impact…so far…
Shelly is favorite to come bottom on Saturday but miss dynamix are favourites to get eliminated. Interesting even the bookies have cottened on to the agenda
I knew Lorna would be gone once she was anounced to be in the bottom two. I said in my previous post that they were also gunning for her but not heavily.
Shelley was saved mainly only to justify the flash vote. They wanted Lorna soon off and will loose Shelley in the next two weeks easily. And then the true star of the Overs will be able to shine but they will be able to bring her down just in time. I guess that’s the plan.
I have to give Nicole two Oscars. First for her shocked reaction face when Miss Dynamix were saved. Just to make sure the viewers get the same impression “They stayed? But even Nicole doesn’t want them in! We should stop voting for them!”. And the second Oscar for her choosing Shelley over Lorna eventhough she was pretty much only praising Lorna but had to do what the producers whispered into her ear.
And was I the only waiting for a “Dermot, I’m leaving the show!”-moment from Sharon? 😉
Shelley will def get a bounce. Miss dynamix intrigue me. They were awful and were definatly targeted, but they survived. I remember every year theres an act who defies logic to survive a couple weeks, DM3 did it last year after. I find no logic behind it but my gut feeling is that they will survive another week with Shelly and that Mr Friend may be bottom of the pile next sat
That’s quite feasible. Shelley will bounce, the bounce is one of the most reliable trends, as has been stated here before, and all the more so in the earliest stages in the competition when fewer people vote and the vote is much more split. Do bear in mind District 3 were boys – girlbands have a much worse track record.
I think 3/1 (Stan James) Gary Barlow to be winning manager is a reasonable price.
Also with voting margins so tight at the beginning it is maybe worth looking at the longer odds competitors for bottom on Saturday night. eg Abi 16/1. A poor performance is all it might take. If the pattern is to be bottom on Saturday night gets saved on Sunday TPTB might actually want keepers to be bottom of the pile on Saturday. They might risk de-ramping people we do not expect. Having unexpected people facing the chop would add to the drama and encourage Sunday night viewing. They desperately need things to spice up and they will surely find that controlling the flash vote is easier than the overall vote.
Alternatively back someone to go with a view to laying off if they are bottom on Saturday. Then you have in a way 2 chances of winning. When the margins between acts are so small it might pay to go against the grain on someone at a decent price. The real odds should perhaps be more compressed. I think they will try to engineer headlines.
There certainly won’t be no pattern to it, nor will it be a regular occurrence, it will just be used to suit depending on who they want to dispose of
Guys, do you think the fact that we KNOW Shelley was saved from being last will affect her potential bounce?
She was last in the flash vote but Lorna was last in the overall vote, which I assume would be a larger vote so could you say that both came last. Shelley was a non runner in the second race.
That would seem to be a rather brave assumption – do we have any reliable data on the voting rates over time? I would have thought (another assumption, hah!) that most of the voting is at least attempted within the first few minutes of the voting being opened – precisely the window of the flash vote.
The vote itself will be larger, but only by the incremental votes between late Saturday night and the close of votes on Sunday.
Presumably they’ve upgraded all the systems this year such that they can handle the voting rates within such a short period – is there anyone who actually tried to vote by phone that could confirm / deny this?
Moot point really but surely there are more votes in 24 hours compared with ten minutes. Lorna came last at the end of Sundays vote regardless. Shelley was not a competitor in the 2nd vote.
Trying to relate the psychology of the viewers with the ‘bounce’. So, with the Saturday flash vote being a separate vote to the Sunday one, maybe Shelley will bounce on Saturday but then on Sunday not enough people will vote for her and she may end up bottom of the Sunday vote. So no bounce overall, since she ends up in the bottom 2 anyway.
I expect Overs to be “First Category Announced Safe On Saturday” @Bwin.
Just seen this article
http://m.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s103/the-x-factor/news/a523542/the-x-factors-lorna-simpson-upset-over-exit-i-was-played-video.html
Looks like most of the comments are stating this as sour grapes, for being the first booted out, but everything mentioned had already been pointed out on this site.
I presume that XF production people and those connected to the show in any capacity know of this site. It must be a source of ideas and amusement.
I guess that ex contestants must also be aware of this site.
Over the years, there must be increasing numbers of people with inside knowledge of the strategies and machinations that are the meat and drink of daily life on behind-the scenes at XF.
Yet it bamboozles me that not one of this ever increasing number of folk has dared, or been provoked, to share a few titbits, reveal inside knowledge, confirm or deny any of the speculations that fill the posts on these XF threads.
Come on, you informed lurkers!
Where are you?
What are you waiting for?
And could you imagine the DEFCON alert level leap at the XFPTB bunker if during a live show, a contestant referenced this website?
Hahahahaha!
Just planting a seed…nothing more!
*Laughs evilly whilst twirling moustache, polishing hooded claw and rereading Guardian articles re Edward Snowden*
Here’s an idea for boosting traffic to this site:
Taking a leaf out of the Paddy Power Marketing Book and ordering a batch of sofabet “lucky pants” (and equivalent “lucky knickers”), which are then hand delivered to the remaining contestants in this year’s X Factor.
Gosh! Wouldn’t all the forthcoming eliminations become edge-of-the-seat events?
I think Lorna would definitely now be sporting a pair.
Hehe!
I can donate my Eurovision pants. They blue.
I think Sam Callahan’s eyes are blue. Louis is promising to have Sam strip for votes, so Sam’s eyes and your ex pants could make a lovely match and a televisual treat.
If he then returns them to you, ebay would be your oyster.
I think it’s pretty apparent to a lot of people. Deadlockgate with Rylan and Carolynne last year was a sort of Wizard Of Oz watershed moment where the show’s mechanism became visible to the general public. And the presence of a novelty act in and of itself has lost novelty value, it’s become an expected part of the format. The despicable treatment of Chris last year also garnered attention for being so blatant – things like the giant face with the laser eyes, the constant drip of negative press and the unprofessional/nasty comments by Tulisa and Nicole were so grossly unsubtle that people saw it for what it was – even the judges themselves commented on the staging, and Gary also commented on the uncalled-for/non-sequitur tone/content of Nicole’s and Tulisa’s comments. But most of all, I think the audition show frontloading every year, despite the fact judges’ houses is filmed after the audition shows have aired, is what makes it clearest to audiences that the show is steered to a certain degree. When someone gets an emotional VT, 15 mins of airtime and/or the closing slot in an early audition show, followed by subsequent press coverage, I think it’s pretty apparent to most people that a narrative is being set up and they’re going to make the live shows. This is a media-savvy country.
As has been discussed previously on this site, the level of overmanipulation only really skyrocketed (and started backfiring) with the 2011 series. As I understand it, in 2010 the acts were all supported to a much greater degree and there was less in the way of dampening tactics – e.g. even though One Direction were plan A, they were quite happy to let Matt win. Similarly, when the level of talent is high, the audition show frontloading doesn’t seem egregious (good example from this year: Sam Bailey), but picking performers as weak as Frankie and Janet as the male and female plan A in 2011, apparently based on image alone, was ridiculous (especially given how much more talented the rest of the field was – I loved all of Marcus, Craig, Kitty, Misha, Amelia, Jade etc). And last August, I couldn’t believe it when Ella, Jahmene and James – she bland, they each offensive to two of the five senses – were three of the four acts extensively presented to us in the opening shows. (I was fine with Lucy.) But whaddaya know, two of them made the final. Which is why I can’t call X Factor – I’m incredibly critical of the UK, but even I didn’t think this was a nation of such easily-led masochists that viewers would happily spend money to ensure the final was effectively a contest between someone letting out a helium balloon and someone having a seizure. I still haven’t watched the Sunday episode of last year’s final – I could have recreated it myself at home with a dog whistle and a large bowl of muesli.
However, what I think does pass people by is the use of sandwiching, the use of the SCD overlap, the use of plinths, contextual red and black/fire/smoke (the Janet hellmouth and Kye-on-a-pyre), the use of certain song choices, and certain other narrative tools. And while I think a lot of people see through sob stories and see them as a standard part of the format, in many cases that doesn’t take anything away from their power – they’re still people’s real stories, and viewers still connect to them. A sob story won’t make me like a performer I don’t like, but if there’s an act I do like, knowing their background and knowing them as people does create much more of an emotional connection (Misha B, SuBo), even if it’s someone I feel pretty neutral or not that strongly about (Jesy).
‘…I’m incredibly critical of the UK, but even I didn’t think this was a nation of such easily-led masochists that viewers would happily spend money to ensure the final was effectively a contest between someone letting out a helium balloon and someone having a seizure. I still haven’t watched the Sunday episode of last year’s final – I could have recreated it myself at home with a dog whistle and a large bowl of muesli.’
Have been several minutes rereading and chuckling at the above.
Thank you, eurovicious )D
I think your final paragraph, in which you outline the subtler and littlest-known of the dark manipulative arts from the Syco spell-book demonstrates that there is yet room for more explicit and specific consciousness-raising among the spoon-fed and spoon-led Syco viewership re the existence and power of these hidden persuaders and also the insidious evolution of such techniques.
I despise the X Factor, so hope that the exploitative, greedy shit-heads who control the proceedings, narratives, fortunes and outcomes are more widely known for what they are.
It’s not just the fate of performers like Jade from last year or Lorna from this year (who know that they have been unfairly treated or ‘played’) that rankles.
It’s that in a time when money is tight, there is a proportion of an enormous viewership spending/wasting/ millions upon millions of pounds every year (via phone voting etc) on this contest, while Syco bare-facedly promote the idea that they provide ‘a level playing field’ for their performers.
It’s probably an overstatement to describe this as a kind of fraud on a massive scale, but it’s sure damn ugly to behold.
Like the thrill of reading Edward Snowden’s breakdown of how it really is, I would relish hearing and reading an insider’s confirmation of what we know to be the reality.
I’m an ex X Factor fan, who enjoyed the series up to and including the 2009 season.
As an old benchmark, I always remember a series of the judges’ comments from the final of the Leona Lewis year (2006).
Louis looks and sounds the same as ever, Simon was shockingly partial but Sharon threw in a comment during her feedback that you would never hear nowadays from a panelist, and that qualifies as quaint.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpkJD7TjWgw
My feelings on the X Factor have changed since last year, which was the first series since 2004 that I watched from start to finish. I didn’t watch 2005-6 at all and from 2007-10 I only watched the final – I returned to the fold when I started watching the 2011 series midway through the live shows, and I absolutely loved it because of the acts. (Misha and Kitty are two of the best X Factor acts ever – megavoiced out-there divas who thought about every aspect of their performances and didn’t care about being liked.) I didn’t have a negative impression of the show at all. It was only after I followed last year’s underwhelming series from start to finish that I realised what a procession it can be in the worst case. I probably would have enjoyed earlier, less cynical series much more. That said, I don’t think X Factor is a con – if people want to spend money voting based on what they see, or to stop Jahmene from having to go back to labelling expired coleslaw for a living (no shame in that), it’s their choice. I just think the programme itself should be a more positive affair after so much on-screen negativity the last two years. And I don’t mean Gary by that – far from being a “funsponge”, he’s generally very fair and professional and never crossed the line into nastiness in the way that Tulisa, Louis or Nicole all did in their treatment of Misha and Chris (or indeed Sharon in her treatment of Steve Brookstein).
It’s interesting seeing how Syco formats are adapted in different countries in terms of steering, editing etc. I watched an audition show of Croatia’s Got Talent on TV while in Zagreb last year and there was little in the way of editing or narrative-building – it was just an hour of various acts walking on stage, auditioning and walking off again, with minimal editing and no narrative-building. My kneejerk reaction would be to praise this less manipulative approach, but I have to admit it was totally boring. I think so few acts auditioned that they just showed everyone who did, it was just a load of mediocre regional dance groups etc.
At the other end of the scale, I stopped watching Germany’s Got Talent years back because the level of manipulation was so far beyond anything I’d seen in the UK.
X Factor Adria (covering Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Macedonia) debuts at the end of October, with Zeljko as head judge – really looking forward to that. On Serbia’s Got Talent last year there was a wee lad who absolutely killed Crno i belo (in the good way): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVNxVBMdR_s
The result wasn’t a surprise to me but the method of dispatch was; I thought that the judges would be wary of going against the public vote but then again, what would be the point of that option if it was never used? And where better than the first live final to demonstrate this power in its new form?
Poor Lorna was such obvious cannon fodder though, and perhaps had even worse exposure than Sophie Haribo from two years ago. Lesson here is that the journey counts from audition to live. Keeping her in would have only prolonged her agony for another week and why would you want to lose your novelty-ish act straight away? It would leave for a drier, less entertaining show.
Shelley will bounce this Saturday, and by my predictions, Luke is in trouble. I know that the knives are out for Miss Dynamix but they need to have their journey (albeit a short one) and happy ending. They could even come back next year…
I’m still standing by my prediction that Kingsland Road is the alpha band. Both them and Rough Copy were treated well, but the latter need far more softening up to make them palatable to the voters. Neither will win though.