You would think that the X Factor producers would have celebrated the truce with BBC TV's Strictly Come Dancing producers, with the former starting after the latter finishes rather than attempting to fight for sofas, by putting on a super show. Starting in Dublin, I was hopeful. A lot of tremendous acts have come from Ireland where you might even think that children are born singing in tune and you would expect to be watching some decent auditions. Even the sight of a massive Louis Walsh face on the side of a bus (not the back, notably,) didn't dampen my enthusiasm.
However, Saturday's show had to be one of the poorest in the whole series' history. It may have been a good joke to spoil Louis' fun a bit by having a bum act to kick off with but they really should have followed that with some good ones. Instead we got disaster after pathetic disaster.
It was a long time in before we get Niall Sexton who has a slightly strange voice but puts in a nice audition. A good contender if he can actually perform on a stage.
He is followed by another good one. Conor McGinty has an excellent range and delivers Say Something pretty impressively, although almost anything vaguely in tune would seem impressive in this edition. He does wander around a lot but gets applause from the panel, probably as much down to relief at finding someone as for the quality of his performance.
Then we see Janet Grogan. She reached the Six Chair Challenge two years ago and just lost out when Simon dropped her in the final choice of contestant to go off to Judges' Houses. Simon has since stated on several occasions that he believes he made a mistake then. I have looked back to my commentary at the time and there was a pretty massive audience shout for someone else to have Janet's place at the time. Someone called Lizzie who didn't get very far was who he chose after 'listening to the audience'. I had both down as performing well and Janet as a pretty natural choice. In the 'Over 25s' Group, though, there was quite a bit of competition with Ben and Fleur leading the way. The annoying thing I noted at the time was that 'idiot' (as I referred to Stevi Ritchie) should not have had a place!
Janet sings fairly well. I wouldn't say she was brilliant but she deserves the second chance.
Next we go to London and in a tortuous and long segment get introduced to the desperate Octavia and Bradley. They dress very stylishly and no money was spared on make-up but this just looks so fake to me. They arrive as a duo, have an argument and enter as individuals. Even that bit I find curious but never mind. Octavia's is a weak audition although you can see he might have some TV appeal. Then Bradley is brought in and he does a pretty reasonable rap thing. He is definitely better. Then they are told to kiss and make up. If the show was not already bizarre it certainly is now. They return as a pair and perform something fairly forgettable. The show goes on and on about these two. They even get a slot on Xtra Factor with Rylan afterwards! Someone in the production team has clearly decided that they will help audience figures and the story will entertain. I would sack him or her. That was a terrible programme.
A saving grace was Kayleigh-Marie Morgan who sang With You, a very good audition although she seems to me more of a West End Theatre star than a pop idol. She performs very well a difficult number but there were still some dodgy notes in there. After the farce that had preceded her, though, she came as welcome relief and certainly deserves a place at Boot Camp. Hopefully that's where Bradley & Co will be dumped.
I really do hope this show improves on Sunday. I felt that this has been largely a waste of viewing time. And I am a fan.
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