TheLittleSongbird The X Factor I do find very addictive, and while it is very entertaining at times, there are things I don't like about it. There have been some talented singers, I especially loved Alexandra Burke and Leona Lewis, but other wannabes in the auditions have been laughable, and there have been others who were fine in auditions, but were dreadful on the live shows. I do like Simon Cowell, though his criticisms can be very hurtful and unfair, reminds me of Jason Gardiner on Dancing on Ice. When the contestants sing, I do like most of the song choices, as long as the arrangement, choreography and singing is good, and their outfits too, and I have mostly liked them. Louis Walsh sometimes gets on my nerves, he heavily criticised Daniel Evans, and compared him to Ricky Gervais in a nightclub or something like that, and that is the sort of thing people would take to heart in a bad way. As I said The X Factor is very addictive, but I do have a nag that applies to other entertainment shows as well. The actual decision to replace Sharon Osborne with Cheryl Cole was okay, though Sharon was very encouraging and friendly, and is missed. But now Strictly Come Dancing have replaced Arlene Phillips with Alesha Dixon, which is ludicrous. Dixon is a beautiful woman, and has a talent for dancing, but I wish that people would stop being so prejudiced, and stop replacing more experienced people with younger ones. Honestly, it has been too long that people keep judging others by their appearances and ages instead of their talents which is actually more important. In conclusion, I like The X Factor, but I would never participate in it. I want to be a singer being 17, but I prefer to start small, instead of rushing what I want to do, and not be subject to negative press. Speaking of that, the X Factor is very manipulative, thanks to all the lies the media put in the papers. 6/10 for entertainment. Bethany Cox

ml012a4860 What really ticks me off about this show is that its made to look bigger than life, with great songs like 'O Fortuna' used while showing a reject crying and 'Dies Irae' for the judges entrance to the stage. Two great songs rubbished by the crap show yes but the worst use of a great song was with Barber: Adagio For Strings used beautifully in the film Elephant Man. Would this show put the song to great use? Well as you can tell they didn't, It was used with a segment of the show when auditions in Leeds failed to call back one person... I can only imagine what the director was thinking, Maybe "Wow no one got through in Leeds, what piece of music would best reflect this disaster??? What about the song that The Elephant Man died to while thinking of his mother? I can't get over the three judges who seem to believe that they are the greatest thing to hit the music industry since the electric guitar, Simon Cowell who seems to fall for ever teenage trollop that walks into the audition room (Like the porn star from one season that really couldn't sing... She got through). This from the man that brought us Robson and Gerome, Teletubbies and Five with endless covers to boot. Sharon Osbourne, Who was no one till MTVs The Osborne's and has been doing any crappy TV show/Advert since, I mean, Bingo anyone? However the worst judge of them all has to be Smeagol or Louis Walsh as he also likes to be called. He loves anyone who is Irish and loves to use phrases "I'm Not Sure If You Have The X-Factor" or "But They Are Number One" (Referring to Westlife), If by X-factor you mean failing to break the States and covering song after song, lip-syncing while sitting on a stall then Westlife sure have that... in spades. His shifty eyes, the way that he dresses and talks through his nose, he looks like a creep, the kind of guy who runs his business from an office above a taxi rank.What they should do is call this 'The Three Judges' because its only about them, THEY pick what song THEIR act has to sing... Sorry I mean cover, and when you see the phone number of the person that you wanna 'Vote To Save' who do we see in a picture box next to said number... If you thought that it was the act who was/is singing you are wrong. What you get is a picture of the singer's mentor, WHY? Seeing a picture of one of these three berks is quite bad but no where near as bad as hearing their opinions... Let me get this straight, I HATE BULLIES and I hate these three idiots because thats what they are. In Simon Cowells first outing on reality TV I seen him on Pop Stars, At this time they saw no point in have any fat over weight security guards. After Pete Waterman rubbish one act and made her cry with some unnecessary comments we saw a shot of her talking to a rather muscular contestant who also happened to be a black belt in something or other. He said to the girl that if they said anything like that to him he would 'knock them out'. Anyway when it comes to it the black belt does say after his audition 'If you think your hard Pete then come on'. He said this walking up to the table, Simon Cowell backed away with a look of terror and left it to Nikki Campbell to defuse the situation... Simon Cowell? Simon Coward more like! Now he is in a room with fat morons to protect him he seems to take pleasure in bringing an impressionable young girls to tears with slurs on there singing, weight and looks with the comment "I have to be honest" (This is something that someone brought up on the American Idol reviews). All three are bullies though not just Simon... Walsh kept going on at a 16 year old girl and would not stop till she cried, he attacked everything about her till he hit a nerve. It only stopped when she was lead away. I'm not saying that they shouldn't tell auditionees what they think of their performance, sometimes it can be funny, but its stopped becoming banter between the judges and singers and is now people with the power to make 'Dreams Come True' telling people to 'Give It Up'.Deep down inside I know that soon or later it will all come to an end... It has to, surely... we have to return to singer-song writers gracing the charts. As Robin Gibb (BeeGees) said "We are at a the stage where what we have now is covers, covers equal success, however it can only go so long before we have covers of the covers". Think of it, since the boy band phenomenon where someone like Walsh finds 5 good looking guys/girls, only after looks, do you think he says "Ok, who is the songwriter?" no, more like "Can one of you hand me that Abba album". This is what X-Factor does but on a bigger, faster scale.In conclusion whats really wrong with this program is the promise of 'The Greatest Singer In The World' and then leaving us with a good looking cover merchant. To me someone who sings while raising their hands up and down with their eyes close, stretching out every vowel in a song doesn't necessarily constitute to a great singer. My music idols are Bob Dylan, Keith Richards, Mick Jagger, Dolly Parton and countless others. These to me are people with something that couldn't be bottled but Simon Cowell seems to believe that he has not only bottled it, but is now selling it like golden eggs of which he is laying himself.

Stockard This show is fabulous! Sharon Osbourne is fabulous, Simon Cowell is fabulous and Louis Walsh is...well not fabulous, he's just...there. We are only three episodes into the series and already it has proved itself to be miles better than Pop Idol and other such previous shows, and that is because of Sharon Osbourne. What a brilliant judge, honest compassionate and so very funny. I could happily sit and watch her yell "fabulous" for the whole hour.As brilliant as the audition shows are, the "boot camp" shows should be even better, with the judges eventually taking home 5 acts each from whichever category they are given. The show just hooks you in and you can't help but watch, and it is getting more and more popular each week, with over 500 000 more viewers tuning in each new week. Kate Thornton is doing a great job as the presenter, although i would have preferred to see Ant and Dec.The live shows should also prove excellent, and we will see how Kate does with presenting those. As it is, we have about 3 or 4 more weeks worth of audition shows and i am looking forward to every single one. Brilliant Saturday night TV is finally back!

Theo Robertson ... Screamed Roberto Duran as he walked out of his legendary bout with Sugar Ray Leonard . After seeing the first three editions of THE X FACTOR I also have to scream " NO MORE . NO MORE " and walk away from this TV concept that is doing my brain no good . Call it what you want but it's just FLOP IDOL under a different name And after seeing POP IDOL , American IDOL , POP STARS THE RIVALS etc we know what to expect by now . The trailers revolve around Simon Cowell being interviewed : " I think we'll be seeing some outstanding talent "Cut to some loser making a fool of themselves" I doubt if we'll see one bad singer " Cut to bad singer YAWN In order to make a fast buck the criteria has changed . Instead of singers aged 18 to 26 the entry criteria for auditions are for singers aged 18 to 24 , 25 plus , and groups . There's also a ridiculous judge in the shape of Sharon Osbourne . Forgive me for asking but is she actually a big name in music management ? I know she manages her husband ( Obviously very badly ) who's only claim to fame is that he's one of the very few rock superstars from the 1970s to be still breathing and without a criminal conviction for downloading child porn . I also find Sharon's use of the word " fabulous " very irritating . " Oh you look fabulous darling . Darling what a fabulous voice you have . Fabulous , fabulous , fabulous " You'd have thought being married to Ozzy for all these years she'd happily believe Professor Stephen Hawking has a fabulous voice . Is she the best judge the producers could find ? What's really irritating me about this show is that there's not enough emphasis on the deluded idiots who insist on turning up to make an idiot of themselves . There has been glimpses though not enough for my liking and it wasn't until the third episode we had a couple of classics . One was a male Princess Diana lookalike who informed the panel that he was 144 years old while another came in dressed up as Guy Fawkes and did a rap number and tried to give the judges a copy of his video which they refused because both the video and the singer stank . No I don't mean his singing was awful ( It was ) but because the Guy Fawkes lookalike had terrible B.O Maybe it was wrong of me to comment on this show long before it has finished its run , but I am getting very fed up with this annual contest which only exists to make revenue for advertisers and a fast buck for Cowell's record label . Last year's POP IDOL was won by Michelle McManus who was a body even more unattractive than Mick McManus the wrestler and who has failed to shift records in any large numbers and hopefully the winner of THE X FACTOR will go on to even smaller things . Does the country that gave the world The Beatles really need these talent shows ? No mas please