to be amazed that something as psychologically manipulative as X Factor is allowed on air?

[moondog]

I've been watcihng it for the 1st time.
I can't beleive they are allowed to toy with people's lives like this, building them up, playing with them and then casting them aside.

What an unbelievably unpleasant concept.
I feel tainted for having watched it.

Wilson that made me :o

melancholista

Really? Really?

I think Tulisa would be much more interesting to ask about it. If she does have a mum with mental health problems, then she must feel pretty conflicted about what she's doing on X Factor.

Well, you'd have to read a preceding post to understand mine. But I know that's asking a lot.

If a person with SN was not allowed on the show because they were SN, what would be said then?

It's the same cruel fascination with other people's suffering which drives people to watch.

Simples.

"in years to come people will look back and be rather scornful and amused at how people were so entertained by Simon Cowell's vision of the music industry, and i assume he will be considered a creep like Hughie Green is now"

GetOrf - I agree.

The dramatics on here are worthy of a show in their own right!

I'm also highly amused by the people who 'watched it for the first time, just by chance'.
Ha ha ha.
I love the X Factor, it's fun, light hearted Saturday night viewing.
The X Factor thread is brilliant too.

I won't have it on in my house. The early rounds are like some ghastly freak show- shame on anyone involved in the making of it or watching it.

Ladyevil...................I am with you. It is just light entertainment.

There is nothing worse than a TV snob. Don't like it? Then don't watch. It's an entertainment show.
What about Dancing On Ice? Do we really think that the producers put on an ageing actor and actress because of their ice dancing skills? No, it's because they will be crap and are there solely for our amusement. Is that not exploitation?

TBH, I think XF manipulates the audience more than the contestants, or attempts to. The sob story/violin backing is becoming a bit of a joke.

The 'cruelty' of the rejection process - that's show business, surely? Last time I checked, all auditions involved rejection and are often a lot more cruel and personal than 'you're not ready for this' or whatever bingo line the judges trot out. Yes, it's public rejection but then they're competing for a life in the public eye.

The mauling of the contestants by the press is a different issue I think.

This may sound crazy, but I think it is all a fix. They "Plant" the really bad ones for entertainment.
They know who is going to win all along.
The judges speak like they are reading from a script.
I actually find it hard to watch, it makes me cringe.

Couldn't agree more Lady.

Lol batsupmenightie -

melancholista Mon 10-Oct-11 10:51:41
I think it's very similar to visiting Bedlam and watching hangings.

Seriously??? I have watched X Factor from series 1 and I am pretty sure I haven't seen a single person die yet.

If you find it hard to watch and it makes you 'cringe' may I ask why you are watching it? See I don't like programmes about animal cruelty so I don't watch them. I don't criticise anyone who does either. So I guess what I'm really saying is this - it's none of anyone's bloody business what anyone else watches on telly AND nobody has any business huffing and puffing and comparing light entertainment to public hangings!

I am inclined to disregard posts which are punctuated in "simples", however...

"I think it's very similar to visiting Bedlam and watching hangings."

It's not really, is it?

I think that most people who tune in to the X-Factor actually enjoy the auditions. I definitely do. I like it when someone who looks completely ordinary trost on the stage and bellows out a song very well. It's nice. It IS funny to watch people (not with MH issues) sing a song really out of tune. Most of them take it in good humour. Most of them go on and are IN on the joke (you can usually tell which ones aren't taking it seriously) It's nice when someone like Johnny Funnybones comes on and everyone loves him, because he probably gets picked on IRL for being so effeminate... Fair enough, there are some instances of uncomfortable viewing but no programme is blameless. No-one tunes in especially to guffaw and snigger at people with SN, so it isn't anything like Bedlam, IMHO.

"I am pretty sure I haven't seen a single person die yet"

Well it looked to me like soul murder on the stage last night - betrayed by their mentors.

Soul murder? Oh for crying in a bucket of blood! Soul murder?

Get yourself on the stage animation - you're clearly missed your calling!

Bingo!

We've had a shame on you.

It is funny that on lots of forums and newspaper sites that are reporting the x factor story most of the replies are from people 'who never watch it because it is rubbish''.

Why are these people even reading the story?

I do not watch ''strictly'' therefore I don't read threads about it, but I would not class it as ''rubbish'' it does just not interest me and my best friend is one of the choreographers on it, but I still don't watch it.

I just need a 'voyeuristic blood sucking taunter of the the disaffected' for a full house! Can anyone help with that?

beakinthebeeswax - of course it is all a fix! They manipulate it as far as they possibly can because believe it or not, those clever programme producers know what hooks in the viewers & therefore the money.

My kids are obsessed with it. I find most of it dull & have to confess that the bits I like best are the really rubbish singers who think they are good!!!! The ones who get really humiliated. I'd have probably been one of those awful people who queued up to see the loons in Bedlam.