Comments on: The Y Factor

By: Glenn Aylett

Glenn Aylett — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 12:51:37 +0000

I agree with Nick H, the BBC is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t. If the BBC spends money on BBC Four, it has the tabloids on its back complaining that it is wasting money on programmes that don’t appeal to ” ordinary” people, ie the patronising view these papers have of their readerships who are presumed to only watch the most mainstream rubbish available. Then if they show a programme like Strictly Come Dancing, actually a very well made and well liked dancing show, the broadsheets jump on their back and say they should be spending the money on opera on BBC Four, when in reality the person who penned this diatribe possibly would sooner tune in to watch attractive women dancing in short skirts than listen to four hours of opera.

By: Applemask

Applemask — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:40:46 +0000

Dec does have the wit to know this is all old bollocks. He didn’t say that, ITV said it through him.

By: Nick H

Nick H — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:11:10 +0000

The BBC have played a rather canny strategy here, which will bear fruit in future weeks when the audition phase ends on X Factor and we have to trudge through the boring rounds till the enevitable radio fodder wins at Xmas.
It’s the nature of these times. The Private industries and the political class have ballsed it up and what do they do to respond- blame the public sector! The BBC are doing exactly what they’ve been bullied to do by successive governments and the owned media – to play ratings game and justify their licence fee. When the BBC do it successfully, suddenly they are accused of being too commercial and forgetting their public service obligations! What a load of bullshit…

By: Steve Williams

Steve Williams — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:22:00 +0000

Meanwhile, no wonder the newspaper industry is going to the dogs when the front page of the Sunday Mirror is “ALESHA IS CRAP”, a story based entirely around comments made by bitchy teenage girls at 8.31pm on Friday night when they decided she was too pretty. Three hundred complaints… out of nine million viewers! She doesn’t have any professional dancing qualifications, but it’s not a preofessional dancing competition! It’s Strictly!

I don’t much care for Ian “I Wish I Was Ally Ross” Hyland normally but he got it dead right yesterday…
http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/columnists/ianhyland/514423/ian-hyland.html

I particularly liked…
“Still, I may be able to help poor old Simon Cowell out. Cos if he really does want to put his ego second (ha!) and do something to make the people at home happy, and if changing a schedule really is as easy as he claims, then why doesn’t he just tell ITV to put The X Factor on at 6pm?”

Now everyone’s banging on about how they’re not going to move it given it’s “flopped”. So, clearly, if they’re happy with it where it is, it’s not about the ratings, is it?

By: John Phillips

John Phillips — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 15:55:10 +0000

Thank God I’m not the only one bemused by all this!

We always knew that Cowell thrived on manipulating his audience, but this took things to a new level. In all the furore, only this article has managed to spot that X Factor mysteriously moved back an hour this week compared to EVERY other episode this series!

By: Mike Daniels

Mike Daniels — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:12:59 +0000

How? By drawing mass attention to a BBC show?

Genius!

By: GeorgeS

GeorgeS — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:58:35 +0000

Well done to ITV. Its the best guerilla marketing campaign in support of a tv show in ages. The 10,000 pound gorilla ;) that is the BBC is so flat footed sometimes, but it never ceases to be fun to see someone make a monkey out of them (OK enought ape references now!)

By: Glenn Aylett

Glenn Aylett — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 16:34:47 +0000

I had to laugh when the unofficial controller of ITV, Mr Cowell, referred to the X Factor as a quality programme. Like, hello, someone massacring a James Blunt song is comparable with Panorama and the X Factor is worthy enough to be shown on BBC Four. It’s a rigged talent contest with bland, formulaic music that makes millions for its creator.