The X Factor 2011

[Baddar]

Even if her grandma had terminal cancer and it was touch and go whether she'd make the live shows, it wouldn't have made me cry.

[Gazz]

Have they kept the same format of

'25 minutes of weirdo's, freaks and the downright shit'

Minute 26-29 is the 'tragic heartbreak sob story'

31-33 'sob story belts out a tune - Westlife key change'

33-35 unadulterated blarting

36-60 the good but boring/no story singers.

[Baddar]

Nope.

It's basically been;

The first few you see are good - and you know they are, because ITV followed them to their house and were even present as the entrant's alarm clock goes off.

In the middle you get a couple of crappy ones.

Then at the end, it's the best one possible. Not always with a sob story, though.

But - but, but, but...

If you've been watching Red or Black - oh my god. What a load of bollocks that is. People are actually CRYING because they lost on round two (of 10)? Really? Fuck off. And there are sob stories aplenty on that show.

[METALMAN]

Not been watching, but I hate Kelly Rowland. Vile woman.

[Baddar]

How dare you!

[Lineker]

Redknapp & Blackmore > Red & Black.

[Walker]

Red or Black is fantastic, even if just for the final 8 when you get half of them with sob stories about illness or poverty, and the rest have completely selfish reasons like "I want to make a movie about myself" and "I want to get laid" (paraphrasing that last one).

[Baddar]

I have enjoyed the challenges (the Westwood/R-Mac golf thing was fun) but some of the people are so over-dramatic. Cry when you get within one red or black choice of a million, not after the first fucking game.

[Baddar]

So yeah, the first live show was tonight. I only really wanted to watch it to see how Janet did, and wow, her voice is just incredible. I really liked the sound of Diana Vickers a few years back, but this girl is even better. It's no wonder she's the clear favourite to win it.

I thought the girl band that covered Nicky Minaj, and The Risk were good too, which is surprising because I rarely like any of the bands.

[Katsuya]

The fact that any of the girls has to go is a travesty. It should just be the four of them in the competition every week and let's leave it at that.

[Twist]

Frankie needs to piss off from my telly already. He killed The A Team and not in a Kelly Rowland 'you nailed it' kind of way. In a 'that was fuckin' horrible, you're fuckin' horrible and you need to go' kind of way. No way he should be going through over ANY of the other lads.

[Baddar]

Yeah, I thought he was a bit shit.

Didn't really like any of the over 25's either. Kitty was alright, but I want to hate her so bad.

[GA!]

The fact that any of the girls has to go is a travesty. It should just be the four of them in the competition every week and let's leave it at that.

Agreed. Massive, massive shame but Sophie will go as she's the only one I can't imagine winning outright. If she'd been in the competition in a different year, she would have been a serious contender.

Elimination predictions as follows:

GIRLS - Sophie

BOYS - James Michael (only has his pseudo-indie haircut going for him)

GROUPS - 2 Shoes (they tend to favour those they brought together despite the fact Nu Vibe are shit. Rhythmix surprised the hell out of me, I would've predicted them but they were the best group.)

OVER 25'S - Army bloke (not good enough, only ever got through because Louis probably thought he'd get the 'SUPPORT OUR LADS' vote, if such a vote exists. Louis' judgment is weird though as Sami always was the best one in the group and she originally got the boot.)

[Katsuya]

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Amelia went, you know. Kelly definitely has a soft spot for Sophie and Amelia's was the "weakest" of the four girls tonight. The fact is, Kelly picked her girls incredibly wisely; Amelia has the slight gritty quality to her, Sophie has the powerful voice and control, Misha has her rap and Janet is just...well, she's Janet. They're all so different that they wouldn't split the vote, whereas Gary, for example, has Craig and Marcus doing very much the same thing.

[GA!]

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if Amelia went, you know. Kelly definitely has a soft spot for Sophie and Amelia's was the "weakest" of the four girls tonight. The fact is, Kelly picked her girls incredibly wisely; Amelia has the slight gritty quality to her, Sophie has the powerful voice and control, Misha has her rap and Janet is just...well, she's Janet. They're all so different that they wouldn't split the vote, whereas Gary, for example, has Craig and Marcus doing very much the same thing.

When picking they've got to play the long game. I agree Amelia was the weakest tonight, but she's a safer bet to overcome a variety of songs than the others as Misha cannot rap every song, and Janet cannot pseudo-delicate flower through every song to win, and... I can't remember what else Sophie has sung, which is the problem (curse you X-Factor editing!). Like we've both said, none of them should be going, probably not until the final few weeks. Oh well.

Far as Gary goes, it's unfortunate the male category lacks depth this year. He only had 'male diva' and 'shit Radio 1-indie rocker' as choices, unless he wanted to go with Aiden Part II or that John bloke (arguably another male diva). I think Marcus has a great chance of winning though.

[Jimmy]

I wasn't overly wow'ed by anything last night and some of the claims the judges were making about how good some of the contenders were was a bit ridiculous. Gary's harshness is always welcome and quite usually spot on. He's probably my favourite thing to come out of the new show and he's a judge. Yeah, Janet was good. I liked Amelia too. None of the bands really caught my eye, but I only saw two of them (took a bit of a break towards the end of the show, only to watch the last song).

Frankie was a bit shit, though. His 'looks' aren't going to get him too far if his singing is pretty poor. He took a very overplayed song and made it even worse. They should give him more energetic stuff if they want to get him over as a good looking, made to be a pop star. Make him a bit more of a Robbie Williams, which is what I thought they were trying to do.

[GA!]

Frankie was a bit shit, though. His 'looks' aren't going to get him too far if his singing is pretty poor. He took a very overplayed song and made it even worse. They should give him more energetic stuff if they want to get him over as a good looking, made to be a pop star. Make him a bit more of a Robbie Williams, which is what I thought they were trying to do.

Frankie is this year's Lloyd Daniels - can't actually sing, will survive until late November thanks to the 'teenage girls who use love hearts in their tweets' demographic.

[brenchill]

Highlight of the show was Kelly Rowland dropping a massive bollock.

"You've got a lot to live up to if you want to be the next generation of boy band. You've got to compete with... Gary... and Boys II Men!"

[Jimmy]

Frankie was a bit shit, though. His 'looks' aren't going to get him too far if his singing is pretty poor. He took a very overplayed song and made it even worse. They should give him more energetic stuff if they want to get him over as a good looking, made to be a pop star. Make him a bit more of a Robbie Williams, which is what I thought they were trying to do.

Frankie is this year's Lloyd Daniels - can't actually sing, will survive until late November thanks to the 'teenage girls who use love hearts in their tweets' demographic.

You're right. The only way I see them avoiding this is if they give him songs which are really upbeat in order to cover up his shitty vocals in hope he wins over more people than that. But yeah, I can see him surviving to final 6 or something, but never being in contention to win.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

Amelia was shocking, if it's based on last night she should be gone. Horrendous arrangement and calling it an average performance would probably be a compliment. She's good, but that was just plain awful.

Janet, Sami and Kitty are the only ones that really stood out last night. Was Misha really that good? Didn't see anything special in that. Janet is my favorite by a country mile, followed by Kitty, who while standing zero chance of winning, actually isn't a bad singer.

I'm still wondering how the fuck the army guy got in ahead of Terry or anybody else for that matter. Utter shit.