I've seen a few bits of the auditions these past couple of weeks, and I can't understand how so many people can be so deluded. I mean, usually if you think you're pretty good at something, you're at least all right at it - aren't you? If someone says "I'm really good at DIY, I love it" you'd at least expect them to be able to knock up a couple of shelves and wire the odd plug.
And yet, week after week - it was the same last year - you get people talking in their pre-interviews about how they "have always wanted to do this" and "singing is my life" and "I'd really like to have a Number One album and go on a world tour." And you're sitting there thinking, okay, maybe they sing in a pub and at least they're going to be pretty decent.
And they're awful.
Not just uncertain, or nervous, or "needs a bit of work". Really, really AWFUL. As in tone deaf. As in can't sing to save their lives. As in, if you were to sit down with them and make a list of their top ten talents, singing would not come anywhere NEAR it.
Simon Cowell is right to tell these people to give it up. I'm sure he could do it a little more sensitively, but why on earth do they think they're going to make a career out of it when it's painfully obvious that they couldn't even entertain a crowd of four men and a dog down at the Red Lion on a Friday night without someone asking Maggie the buxom barmaid to put them out of their misery by calling time?
Even more annoying are the people who expect that their mentors are going to take them and make them stars without them actually being able to sing. They totally misunderstand the mentoring process. They think they can just come in with what they think is a "natural" unpolished talent - in reality, a banshee screech which has all the cats in the neighbourhood running for cover - and become an overnight star.
(This is why I was pleased Journey South did well last year. All right, they were a bit meat-and-potatoes, but they were two guys with guitars who could sing and also had "done their time" - they'd been playing in pubs and clubs for years.)
Don't get me wrong, it's quite entertaining seeing all these deranged people. It reminds me of how prescient Ben Elton was 20 years ago: "In Victorian times, they used to go down Colney 'atch, 'ave a laugh at the loonies! These days - we put 'em on the telly!"