Dalton Harris wins X Factor 2018

There were a few small jitters in the outright market this weekend, but long-time favourite Dalton Harris took the crown. Scarlett Lee was the runner-up with Ant Russell in third. From a Sofabet perspective, it felt like producers had long lost their handle on the show, and we could no longer rely on the messages […]

X Factor 2018 Week 6 Review: Tetley for one

We’ve rarely had cause to doff our caps to TPTB this series, so it’s nice to have an opportunity to do so – the sequence of the first three VTs on Saturday had us chuckling. The common theme was going on a night out. First up, Brendan met his cousin in a near-empty pub (was […]

X Factor 2018 Week 5 Review: Shan – a KO

They can still do it, then. This weekend saw Bella expertly filleted, then the judges neatly orchestrated to minimise the embarrassment of dragging Acacia and Aaliyah through yet another singoff – Louis got to look willing to take tough decisions, and Ayda turned on the acting skills to work herself into a state of deadlock-justifying […]

X Factor 2018 Week 4 Review: Gio-politics

“I feel embarrassed, actually, for the show” – as do we all, Simon. He meant that the show hasn’t yet made the best of Acacia and Aaliyah, and that was his excuse for sending Gio home after a barnstorming singoff performance. “How are they going to do this?” Dermot had said, apparently wondering out loud […]

X Factor 2018 Week 3 Review: Bad Vibe

Truly, I’m a glutton for punishment. I watched the live show three times last weekend: the first, prerecorded version on Saturday afternoon having queued for hours on an industrial estate in Park Royal; I got home on Saturday evening to see the technical shambles of its first television airing; before putting myself through Sunday’s truncated […]

X Factor 1018 Week 2 Review: Preaching to the Choir

A general sense of confusion reigned in our comments section after the weekend’s live shows. We can only admit we’re as stumped as anyone. I’ve rarely been as shocked by an X Factor “last announced safe” reveal as when Dermot called Molly over Brendan and LMA Choir.

The most interesting moment on the shows occurred […]

X Factor 2018 Week 1 Review: Goodbye to Ola

Olatunji and Armstrong departed the show, victims of the overcrowded mid-20s-to-early-30s black male demographic niche that was one of the reasons we’d expected a further cull before the first public vote – totally wrongly, as it turned out. We assume the decision to keep Janice was to spare Ayda’s blushes – it would have looked […]

X Factor 2018 Live Shows Preview

After a succession of audition episodes in which it felt to us like producers were just going through the motions, the attempt to make sense of this series was made even more difficult by a ridiculously rushed Six Chair Challenge. Acts were given little or no introduction, with very few reminders of first auditions, and […]