Just how much longer is the British public going to lap up manipulation from ITV's 'saviour'? Forever, probably...Only those pitiful & deluded contestants who are publically mocked on the show could be foolish enough to believe that the successful X-Factor contestants aren't hand-picked from semi-professional 'obscurity' to appear on the show by the show's insiders.
Time after time we're exposed to news that a so-called 'wannabe' has turned out to be an 'alreadyis' - groomed for success and carefully prepared for the climb of the ladder from obscurity via the industry standard X-Factor route - and they're just the ones that get caught out. Leona Lewis from the Brit School, Alexandra Burke and her inside family contacts (though who tought her to be such a diva, I wonder?), JLS already well enough known to secure an Urban Music Award two years before 'appearing from nowhere'...
Or what about the deceptive miming utilised by the show's star performers? Take Cheryl Cole for example.
Plus don't forget all the blatantly staged introductions, such as 'Danyl Johnson' - either staged or I'm a Baboon's Uncle... but maybe I'm being unfair on the production team - they've no reason to try to manipulate the audience experience so early on into the series.
and now this series (one show old, don't forget), brings 'staged' airtime anew to Katie Waissel (or should that be recording artist Lola Fontaine, or reality TV star Katie Vogel, aka Katie V?). As you rewatch her 'debut' and enjoy her family all lying through their teeth, wonder how good the production team's vetting standards must be.
Add into the melting pot today's admission that the first show of the 7th series featured a performance by Gamu Nhengu enhanced by Autotune to correct pitching issues - let's be honest, only the most blatant use to date, hardly the first.
So now we have ITV assuring the fee paying public that by the time they start paying through the nose to 'vote' their way into Simon Cowell's deep pockets that they'll have stopped enhancing performances (until then, ITV seem to be saying 'don't believe a thing you see or hear'). Never mind that by that time the public won't be participating in a fair contest, the field of runners and riders having been distorted at the whim of show producers. And is it ok to accept their assurance of forthcoming propriety? let's face it, if you are found guilty of deception in the first instance, how much further trust deserves to be invested in you?
Nobody really ever thought otherwise, but this really is appalling manipulation of the public. I don't mind that it's staged. I don't mind that it doesn't really offer unknown, untried and unconditioned hopefuls, I don't even mind that its as carefully scripted as any top-line drama... It's the deception I object to, deception that, in many other fields, would be judged unlawful. I've no doubt that the show transgresses not one rule or regulation, but there's that thing called 'the spirit of', and in the X Factor it's sadly lacking.
So WHY do WE, the public, put up with it? No doubt this 7th Series will deliver record audiences, will fill even more column inches, achieve the endorsement of even bigger 'desperate for exposure' music-factory products and fading stars of yesteryear, and who'd bet against the awfully manufactured winner's single reaching number one - perhaps denied the Xmas top spot due to this year's inevitable protest vote (but don't forget Joe McElderry's release grossed Mr Cowell more income than any predecessor's - it's as much a part of the pantomime now as the fakes, the miming, the scripting, the mock angst).
Don't blame Simon or the other 'judges', the production company, ITV or anyone else. They're all helpless without us - and we can't help but go along for the ride, making them even more important, richer and more powerful than they were before.
