Sunday 10 September 2017

Drop the pilot. You feel sorry for the few good acts to have to go through this.

Week 2. Saturday's show is now up against Strictly Come Dancing and viewing figures fall off quite dramatically. Even those who did turn over at 8pm may not have stayed in one of the poorest shows I can remember.

There are some very badly presented tweets about last week's show displayed erratically on screen at the start. This is an extremely amateur job and looks like some last minute attempt to drum up some enthusiasm and counter the low figures. Just looks terrible. Anyway, once that cut and paste job is off the screen we find ourselves at Thorpe Park. I guess the owners of the amusement park may have offered to help make up for a predicted the loss of advertising revenue.

At least we get into the auditions fairly quickly again. The room and set generally look dire and half-finished and any attempt at branding has failed. This is not a good scene although I guess eventually the show will be in big glitzy centres and they're just saving as much cash as they can in the meantime.

First up is a pair from Greece called Pretty Boy Karma who seem more interested in selling their clothing line than singing. They do neither very well. All I can remember now is the massive 36 on one T shirt. Louis Walsh comes out with a classic line: You make JEdward sound like Simon & Garfunkel. Brilliant!

Talia Deane is better. She works at an airport in a VIP service area and she has worked with both Sharon and Nicole, neither of whom seem to remember her at all. She's all enthusiastic about how nice they were and how one or the other had encouraged her to do this and one or the other had a selfie taken with her and you feel a bit sad that no-one is that bothered. She does, though, do a great job with I Put A Spell On You and she is one I'd like to see get further.

Then we get Leah. She waves her hands a lot. Drew Wedlake who busks in his spare time and sounds a bit like yet another average James Arthur. Then New Dynamix, who probably will have to change their name as they may want us to emphasise the second syllable but most will choose the first and that sounds like some sort of breakfast cereal. They are a vaguely fun group of five that I don't see going that far.

Kevin Day White, on the other hand, is one of the reasons for watching the show. A musician from Paris who came over to London a year or so back to try and find some success may just have done so. A great voice, reminds me a bit of Gregory Porter but not as annoying. He sings It's A Man's World which is all familiar stuff but classy nonetheless. Plays a cool guitar too. I love this guy but do wonder whether he is 2017 or just someone we might have bought in 2007?

You'll see a lot more of him, for sure.

We see far, far too much, though of Nathan Sailsman. The producers must have been really short of entertaining auditions as he gets a whole load of time and really does not do well. For some reason, possibly urged by the producers, the judges seem to have great difficulty making up their minds. We've seem them put complete rubbish through in an instant and now they're 'umm'-ing and 'ah'-ing about this chap who, whilst pleasant enough, is not going to go far even if they push him.

Topher Balne, Sami Shepherd, Izzy Price, Nathan again come and go. Not worth writing about. Nor are some attempt to make something of a scary train ride the judges had when we get bizarre acts Ginny lemon, Doctor Woof and Holy Penfield. All not at all memorable and just bad tv.

We end with Rebecca Grace who is not easy to watch with some of the expressions she makes but at least she can sing and has an early Adele feel about her. At least the show ends well but, seriously, after an hour we have just three people who may be worth watching again.

Not a good start. Perhaps Sunday will be better. Ideally with someone else at the helm producing this thing.

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