it has nothing to do with music as the massive knows it, it's just a little bauble of glitter that lights up a winter's night...

IN our house by never watching it.

only discussing it amongst themselves in their own homes while it's on air.

It's obviously a ludicrous pantomime of a show - designed to put even more millions in the bank account of Simon Cowell - but it's no less entertaining for it. Surely there's room in the world for enjoyable nonsense like this AND John Grant records? Personally, I'd grow a three foot long beard and dye it purple before I'd buy anything by Wagner, Cher or any of the other ludicrously over-hyped contestants but, along with the consistently brilliant Harry Hill's TV Burp which precedes it, I'd say The X Factor is perfect Saturday night prime-time fare.

Right, I'll get my coat...

I just know I would hate it (from the wee bits I have seen) so just don't watch it.
I tell you what I do hate: people on Twitter thinking they are being funny commenting on it. I blame Eamonn Forde, who is, however, very funny about X Factor.

Well, I'd watch it.

thank you and goodnight

.

And PCP.

I won't make a comment about it.

Oh I just have haven't I? Bollocks!

I know it's crap but it's diverting crap and, of course, it has nothing at all to do with music- as soon as you figure that one out it becomes infinitely more tolerable. I have no idea who some of the 'special guests' are and I have to rely on G Junior to keep me in the picture that some dull rapper or other who sends the audience into paroxysms of exultation is not the bloke from the garage who served us semi-skimmed milk and a bar of Twix two hours earlier.

I had heard of McCartney though.

...why people expect to like and be served by every single TV programme and every single comment on Twitter. You can't like everything, and not everything is going to be aimed specifically at you.

I've only watched three episodes of X Factor (started this year and simply cannot stop), and of course it is utter bilge. But entertaining bilge.

Most people I know watch it, and it is one of the few programmes that kids/parents will watch, it seems to me. It is (by far) the most watched TV show, so there are loads of people who find it tolerable.

My sister and niece would have found Songwriters' Circle unbearable, and would rather gnaw their arms off than watch Mad Men or the Wire, I expect. They love SCD and X-Factor, though.

I suspect Simon Cowell's record of success in the industry means he's eminently qualified to judge what he'll be able to sell.

'Talent' encompasses more than writing your own songs and performing them on a guitar. Dressing up like a dogs dinner and dancing around the stage to a backing track might not be the sort of talent that appeals to the beard-strokers here* but 'vermaninverstreet' evidently loves it.

It's just good Saturday night family entertainment in the tradition of the London Palladium, Dougie Squires Younger Generation and Seaside Special.

* I include myself in this category, natch.

was on the telly in the chippy last Saturday. Who's that judge they've got on now - the one who who looks like a young Louis Walsh?

then he either has to absent himself or be obliged to watch it. (And that obligation itself makes anything less attractive in the first place). I suspect that's where an intense loathing might come from?

Those confidently saying "just don't watch it then" are probably not having to make the choice between spending some time with their loved ones or watching an unbelievably garbage programme.

I know it's not a music programme but it follows every current TV convention (which also renders, say, Who Do You Think You Are unwatchable): close-ups of people at the time of revelation, going on a "journey", heightened emotion, manipulative editing etc etc.

...as a family but to maintain some sense of perspective we play "guess the manipulation", trying to predict or just spot all those little tricks that they seem to be playing on everyone to get the right results every week.

Having said that, I think Rebecca and Matt are actually quite good this year (trying to think of them outside of all the show's trimmings).

Better this than more game show crap, although I am finding the show being lengthened to fill the entire Saturday night a bit tedious. Last night we just couldn't face it live and watched a film while it was on then FF'd through all the filler to the songs and the comments. Much improved and lasted about half an hour.

as a bit of light entertainment for a Saturday night, certainly better than the equivalent fare of the seventies and eighties, which I didn't see much of due to being single with a good social life, though that's not saying much. It is preposterous and rather manic, and highly contrived and I have to stop myself and think of the judges - what the hell do these people know, what have they done? Especially Danni Minogue. Danni Minogue???!!! But it all amuses me.

I understand many people don't like it but I don't understand the vitriol. It's not going to stop the kind of music I like being made or affect my life in any significant way. What is abhorrent is the tabloid nonsense that's written - I read over someone else's shoulder on the bus a big heading 'Is Katie the most hated X Factor contestant ever?' How's that kind of thing going to make some young girl feel who just wants to be successful making pop records?

Setting fire to the judges ??

Industrial quantities of LSD

For them (the judges):

amoebic dysentry