When it gets to the judges houses stage the final six acts left in each category (or however many there may be) should not be chosen by the judges. It should be opened up to the public vote. This way all the acts in the live shows would be there because the public voted for them.
#3 - I like the idea of the judges mentoring their acts BUT they need to DRASTICALLY change the sing off. The should have the bottom two revealed near the start of the results show have the phones lines back on, then have the guests perform and then kick out the person with the lowest amount of votes. The judges clearly have NO IDEA what they talking about.
That wouldn't be viable because then many people wouldn't vote on Saturday if they knew they could wait until sunday to see if their favourite act is in the bottom 2 and vote to save them.
The best way is to get better quality judges who have been trained to vote fully impartially. It would take a strong head to do that though, the whole ethos of the show would have to change which I don't think there is time to do before it ends.
Keep the bottom 2.
Judges cannot save their own act,
Announce who is bottom of the public vote. This would count as one panel vote regardless of the sing off. This would make the judges brave to overturn the public vote. If tied the public vote the casting vote.
1. no more bleedin' sob stories
2. go back to closed auditions
3. less crap people auditioning unless they're truly truly awful and worth a giggle
4. have some behind the scene shows like SCD does and we used to have with Ben on a Friday
5. strongly encourage the "artists" to avoid ballads during live shows
6. get rid of Barlow and Tulisa
7. start the vote AFTER they sing, "one doesn't applaud the tenor for merely clearing his throat"
8. no more sob stories, seriously, they ruin the show
Allow any song that is featured either as background music, sung as by an auditionee or in the live finals to be played only once. So many songs were ruined for me this year and previous years through either over usage or by simply being sung to poorly.
Make the producers get 'on point' with the public's tastes and trends! So many elements from the contestant choices, song choices and fashion styles were so completely wrong.
Remove the final judges voting in the vote off. They still don't understand how it works!
- Embrace the older audience. The fact that Maloney topped the public vote so many times was down in part to the older audience of the show, so instead of trying to scare these type of viewers away by condemning them for being wrong (Tulisa) cater to them.
- Make the show positive. The reason Strictly has been beating the X Factor is due to the fact that Strictly is a much more positive feel good show, whereas The X Factor is riddled with tabloid scandal, sleaziness and contrived controversy, get rid of that and make the show more positive and fun.
-Change the judges categories from those based on age to those based on specialist genres such as Rock, Pop, RnB etc. It would be an interesting tweak and would allow the show to possibly gain a wider musical fanbase.
- Be clear and less hypocritical with the audience, the viewers aren't idiots and yet with these sudden U-turns on contestants (Rylan) and tabloid slander stories (Maloney) the producers make us feel like we are.
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. And the No 1 Rule ............ NO FRIGGIN' SOB STORIES!!!
There is no point in having a sing-off if, say, Louis (as he is the main culprit) already making up their minds that they are still going to send home their least favourite. They must vote to keep the act that sings the best.
Also any mentor with an act in the sing-off is not allowed to vote. There is no point and it just wastes time.
Dermot must take the first answer from the mentor and not wait for the 'magic' words "The act I'm sending home is ... ". Louis clearly send "I want to save Carolynn" and Dermot should have taken that as his answer and not give him the opportunity to change his mind.
- The judges should be: Simon, Gary, Nicole and Dannii/Mel B
- In the live shows, judges are joined by a guest judge who is relevant to the week's theme: for example; Adele (Best of British) Emeli Sande (Unplugged) Robbie Williams (Floorfillers)
- In the absence of a theme week, contestants must sing the hits of the guest judge i.e. Rihanna week, Coldplay week etc.
- Proper themes - i.e. each contestant must sing a song from the week's top 10
- Judges to have one contestant from each category - these include: Male, Female, Bands and Over 27's
- Final 16 contestants to be chosen by viewers like the old pop idol format
- No gimmicks or last minute arrivals - one contestant goes each week with a double eviction in one week
- In the sing off the guest judge has final say therefore there is no deadlock (which has become boring imo)
The biggest for me is can someone actually define what the 'X' in X Factor is. Is it entertainment? Is it the ability to sing? Stage presence, looks, personality, Is it how much income the act can bring in? Until that conflict is sorted it will never find what it is looking for. None of the past contestants have it in my opinion.
Ok, i'm out of ideas. Feel free to add to the list
Public flogging for any artist that murders a song.
Gaffer tape for the audience - firmly attached over their mouths and around the wrists so they cannot shout and clap when the singer hits the one note in tune during the performance.
Broadcast the show at 6pm, before the main target audience have to go to bed.
Give each of the live audience a voting button and when enough of them press it the microphone gets muted
Automatic tuning monitor with the output displayed on the giant screens behind the contestants. The judges would then be unable to overlook "tuning issues".
Exploding earpieces that are triggered when the performer attempts to sing 20 random notes when 1 would do.
An additional viewer voting number to automatically trigger the bucket of gunge above the judges heads when they start talking complete B******t.
Issue Looie Walsh buzzword bingo cards - with a guaranteed prize each week for every single viewer.
Any artist told by the judges that they are the next big thing or a ready made recording artist must sell 500K copies of the song they sang to get those comments before they can appear on the next show.
Bring in an infinite number of monkeys as judges - if this is the route for producing the next Shakespeare play it must be the same for finding a worthy Xfactor winner.
Have a lottery style machine that is activated 5 minutes before the voting lines close. This determines if the votes cast are to keep the artist or to ditch the artist. The artist with most votes may have to go home.
All songs to be performed must be chosen on the night from a randomised play-list on a karaoke machine.
Any cover on the live show must be immediately followed by a video of the original artist singing the same song, for comparison purposes.
Multiple voting from the same telephone number are counted as negative votes and decrease the totals.
- Put it back to the Over 25s. People like Olly Murs, Matt Cardle, and Joseph Whelan from this series would fit into that category. That list proves that it is possible to find "Overs" have a place in the music industry. We just need the producers to stop wanting to make the Overs the joke category.
AUDITIONS:
Retain the Arena Auditions but make it look positive! The Arena auditions is what separates X Factor from Idol. I think they should provide less airtime with the Joke acts and more on the potential superstars. Lessen the sob stories, maybe 2 minutes of it would be enough.
And also, cut down the audition episodes. Have 4 audition episodes, 1 per category. Audition 1 - Girls, Audition 2 - Boys, ++
BOOT CAMP:
Scrap the idea of sending them home before the could sing. It makes the judges look stupid and cruel. If you're gonna send them home right away, you never should've sent them through to boot camp.
Divide them per category. Then the acts that belong to the categories would battle each other for a spot to the second round. The better one goes through and the other one leaves. Then the second day should focus on acts singing songs handpicked by their mentors a la "get me through the judges' homes challenge".
JUDGES' HOMES:
Less focus on the Guest Judge. It's not about them, it's about the acts. Select 2 acts that will go through to the live shows, then send home 2 acts. The remaining spot will be battled out by the last 2 remaining acts, singing 1 song together. Who outshines who? Who wants it more than the other?
LIVE SHOWS:
Get better themes. Change the lighting, it's so gloomy that it tends to be boring and dull.
As for the results show, reveal the bottom two at the beginning of the show then open the lines again. To add a twist to it, the judges can still vote on who to save. In a way that they would be given a considerable percentage that can be deducted to the votes of the public. So even though for example, the majority of the judges voted off Rylan, but Rylan still got more votes than Union J despite the Judges' deductions, Rylan is still through. It adds a bit of a suspense to it.
It seems like a complicated procedure but it's more exciting than all judges voting then resulting to a deadlock.
FINALS:
4 acts would get through. The theme would be Judges' Challenge. A different judge would select the song choice of the other. It's not sabotaging. It will show the public on who will shine more even if they're not in their comfort zones (original mentors).
Change the judges, get rid of Tulisa, Gary Barlow, keep Louis Walsh for one more season, bring on Simon Cowell and one other, someone who would make a good judge!
No more joke acts,: it's ruining the show, Rylan lasting so long was ludicrous,this must not happen again.
Closed Auditions, Get the auditions back to what they used to be like, sticking them infront of a large crowd is so old hat now, change it back!
Reveal the results; X Factor USA say whos topping the leader board on a weekly basis, introduce this to the UK Version, It would give us an idea of whats going on.
I agree with the many suggestions above Axe:- - audience shouting out - phone lines being open at the beginning - OTT entrance by the judges - the bottom two - sob stories and long VT's - age limits - over 28's catagory - all current judges and Caroline Flack Bring in:-
- one with least public votes eliminated - a duets catagory - more constructive judges comments - more vocal coaching - singing with a live band week - better quality Xtra Factor with no bias - happier atmosphere
The biggest for me is can someone actually define what the 'X' in X Factor is. Is it entertainment? Is it the ability to sing? Stage presence, looks, personality, Is it how much income the act can bring in? Until that conflict is sorted it will never find what it is looking for. None of the past contestants have it in my opinion.
Completely agree. Maybe it's done to ratchet up the entertainment value, but even the judges usually don't know or agree what they're meant to be looking for. I think only Cowell and Barlow took/ take their role as judge seriously and tried/try to find someone who genuinely could be a successful pop star. I said in a previous post that the bottom line for the judges should be: even at the audition stage, can you seriously see this person becoming a successful pop star in the current music climate? If not, then don't put them through, no matter how great a singer or 'entertaining' they are.
Scrap arena auditions and have the audition in an empty theatre with just the judges, and show one city's auditions per show, it looks a mess when they are zooming off from Manchester to London then back again on the same show, specially when they have guest judges.
1) get rid of the arena auditions.
2) have people apply via youtube and the top 100 per likes get invited to audition in front of the judges. I would also like the xfactor people to go out and actively seek to find more talented people.. why do we almost never hear of people with stage school backgrounds auditioning (leona is the only one I can think of!)
3)Have fewer people at boot camp and give everyone the same chance over the weekend (don't kick people out at the beginning or halfway through)
4) bootcamp should be judged on four activities:
a) solo acapella/ piano performance
b) working in a recording studio
c) choreography / acting (ie music video/stage performance)
d) working with others
b+c+d could be brought together for a final group performance (mimed/partly sung live)
5) judges houses should stay largely the same but please make sure that we get to see the second performances on xtra factor.
6) the live shows are currently so boring. We either have singing candles or people jigging around but singing out of tune. Please can we accept that this is not how the music industry works. Artists pre-record sections or all of their tracks before hand so that an actual entertaining 'performance' can be made. Live sections can be sung.
Get rid of the dated narrow themes they are so pointless.
These that we should have are ones that really show a different side or can be adapted to the artist. Most weeks should not have a theme but then sometimes have a theme like big band or stripped back, playing an instrument or musicals.
7)I would also like them to show more of what the contestants get up to in the week - not having endless chats with their mentor or attending film premieres, but working in the recording studio, learning choreography, taking acting/voice/fame lessons, and interacting together in the house (not hotel)
8)I would also love if they bring back the celebrity mentor an the bit where they do a sessions which each contestant and then sing with them in the show. Potentially the judges could pick a 'best in show' each week and that person wins a celebrity masterclass/duet the following week.
9) voting needs to be more transparent and easier (cheaper). If voting was free then more people would vote, they would be more involved and so viewing figures would be higher and that would mean bigger advertising revenues so making up any loss in income from phone calls. voting could be online or something instead.
10) no wildcards or silly twists, no judges spats, no accusing people of bullying or being a diva. Everyone hates all that fake drama.
Basically I want the xfactor to be like the glee project!!
Judges: I posted a full explanation on the Judges For Next Year topic but for this I'll just say:
Gary Barlow, Emeli Sande, Ed Sheeran, Adele
Auditions: Go back to conference rooms. It was more entertaining watching the judges just point and laugh at auditionees.
Bootcamp: Keep the live audience only for the final solo performances to see how they react with a crowd. The judges each choose 3 acts from each category they want to progress to the live shows then open the voting lines to narrow the 48 acts to 12. This would make more money and eliminate the somewhat tedious Judges Houses stage.
Live Shows:
1. Condense the live shows so there are only 6, making it more bearable for everybody. This way there is a double elimination each week, and only 2 people in the final.
2. Get rid of the Sunday night results show. After all the acts have performed, have a break (5 minutes), a guest performer who does a set of 2 or 3 songs (15 minutes) and then another break (5 minutes), leaving 20 minutes to vote. Then announce the bottom three, the one with the least votes and the bottom two who have a sing-off.
3. GET RID OF DEADLOCK. Once a majority has been reached, the fourth judge will not need to vote (e.g. If two judges already vote to send home one act, then that act is going home!)
4. Have the mentors and contestants co-write their Winners Song. It would be loads better than covers.
Post-X Factor: The winnings change to a £5 million recording contract, with their mentors acting as their director and co-writer for the future. That way, the winner has more chance of success. Unless we get another Chris Maloney...
Comments
That wouldn't be viable because then many people wouldn't vote on Saturday if they knew they could wait until sunday to see if their favourite act is in the bottom 2 and vote to save them.
The best way is to get better quality judges who have been trained to vote fully impartially. It would take a strong head to do that though, the whole ethos of the show would have to change which I don't think there is time to do before it ends.
Each judge choses 1 boy, one girl, 1 group, and 1 over 28. possible tweak over 28's to over 25's.
This would mean each judge would have an equal chance at the start.
Keep the bottom 2.
Judges cannot save their own act,
Announce who is bottom of the public vote. This would count as one panel vote regardless of the sing off. This would make the judges brave to overturn the public vote. If tied the public vote the casting vote.
2. go back to closed auditions
3. less crap people auditioning unless they're truly truly awful and worth a giggle
4. have some behind the scene shows like SCD does and we used to have with Ben on a Friday
5. strongly encourage the "artists" to avoid ballads during live shows
6. get rid of Barlow and Tulisa
7. start the vote AFTER they sing, "one doesn't applaud the tenor for merely clearing his throat"
8. no more sob stories, seriously, they ruin the show
Eton Road anyone!?
Remove the final judges voting in the vote off. They still don't understand how it works!
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. And the No 1 Rule ............ NO FRIGGIN' SOB STORIES!!!
There is no point in having a sing-off if, say, Louis (as he is the main culprit) already making up their minds that they are still going to send home their least favourite. They must vote to keep the act that sings the best.
Also any mentor with an act in the sing-off is not allowed to vote. There is no point and it just wastes time.
Dermot must take the first answer from the mentor and not wait for the 'magic' words "The act I'm sending home is ... ". Louis clearly send "I want to save Carolynn" and Dermot should have taken that as his answer and not give him the opportunity to change his mind.
- In the live shows, judges are joined by a guest judge who is relevant to the week's theme: for example; Adele (Best of British) Emeli Sande (Unplugged) Robbie Williams (Floorfillers)
- In the absence of a theme week, contestants must sing the hits of the guest judge i.e. Rihanna week, Coldplay week etc.
- Proper themes - i.e. each contestant must sing a song from the week's top 10
- Judges to have one contestant from each category - these include: Male, Female, Bands and Over 27's
- Final 16 contestants to be chosen by viewers like the old pop idol format
- No gimmicks or last minute arrivals - one contestant goes each week with a double eviction in one week
- In the sing off the guest judge has final say therefore there is no deadlock (which has become boring imo)
Bring back the clap-ometer!
Part of me wants to stop the involvement of the phone votes! Maybe revert back to answers on a post card. That would be so retro.
Public flogging for any artist that murders a song.
Gaffer tape for the audience - firmly attached over their mouths and around the wrists so they cannot shout and clap when the singer hits the one note in tune during the performance.
Broadcast the show at 6pm, before the main target audience have to go to bed.
Give each of the live audience a voting button and when enough of them press it the microphone gets muted
Automatic tuning monitor with the output displayed on the giant screens behind the contestants. The judges would then be unable to overlook "tuning issues".
Exploding earpieces that are triggered when the performer attempts to sing 20 random notes when 1 would do.
An additional viewer voting number to automatically trigger the bucket of gunge above the judges heads when they start talking complete B******t.
Issue Looie Walsh buzzword bingo cards - with a guaranteed prize each week for every single viewer.
Any artist told by the judges that they are the next big thing or a ready made recording artist must sell 500K copies of the song they sang to get those comments before they can appear on the next show.
Bring in an infinite number of monkeys as judges - if this is the route for producing the next Shakespeare play it must be the same for finding a worthy Xfactor winner.
Have a lottery style machine that is activated 5 minutes before the voting lines close. This determines if the votes cast are to keep the artist or to ditch the artist. The artist with most votes may have to go home.
All songs to be performed must be chosen on the night from a randomised play-list on a karaoke machine.
Any cover on the live show must be immediately followed by a video of the original artist singing the same song, for comparison purposes.
Multiple voting from the same telephone number are counted as negative votes and decrease the totals.
Joke acts must have a decent stand-up routine.
Retain the Arena Auditions but make it look positive! The Arena auditions is what separates X Factor from Idol. I think they should provide less airtime with the Joke acts and more on the potential superstars. Lessen the sob stories, maybe 2 minutes of it would be enough.
And also, cut down the audition episodes. Have 4 audition episodes, 1 per category. Audition 1 - Girls, Audition 2 - Boys, ++
BOOT CAMP:
Scrap the idea of sending them home before the could sing. It makes the judges look stupid and cruel. If you're gonna send them home right away, you never should've sent them through to boot camp.
Divide them per category. Then the acts that belong to the categories would battle each other for a spot to the second round. The better one goes through and the other one leaves. Then the second day should focus on acts singing songs handpicked by their mentors a la "get me through the judges' homes challenge".
JUDGES' HOMES:
Less focus on the Guest Judge. It's not about them, it's about the acts. Select 2 acts that will go through to the live shows, then send home 2 acts. The remaining spot will be battled out by the last 2 remaining acts, singing 1 song together. Who outshines who? Who wants it more than the other?
LIVE SHOWS:
Get better themes. Change the lighting, it's so gloomy that it tends to be boring and dull.
As for the results show, reveal the bottom two at the beginning of the show then open the lines again. To add a twist to it, the judges can still vote on who to save. In a way that they would be given a considerable percentage that can be deducted to the votes of the public. So even though for example, the majority of the judges voted off Rylan, but Rylan still got more votes than Union J despite the Judges' deductions, Rylan is still through. It adds a bit of a suspense to it.
It seems like a complicated procedure but it's more exciting than all judges voting then resulting to a deadlock.
FINALS:
4 acts would get through. The theme would be Judges' Challenge. A different judge would select the song choice of the other. It's not sabotaging. It will show the public on who will shine more even if they're not in their comfort zones (original mentors).
No more joke acts,: it's ruining the show, Rylan lasting so long was ludicrous,this must not happen again.
Closed Auditions, Get the auditions back to what they used to be like, sticking them infront of a large crowd is so old hat now, change it back!
Reveal the results; X Factor USA say whos topping the leader board on a weekly basis, introduce this to the UK Version, It would give us an idea of whats going on.
Axe:-
- audience shouting out - phone lines being open at the beginning - OTT entrance by the judges - the bottom two - sob stories and long VT's - age limits - over 28's catagory - all current judges and Caroline Flack
Bring in:-
- one with least public votes eliminated - a duets catagory - more constructive judges comments - more vocal coaching - singing with a live band week - better quality Xtra Factor with no bias - happier atmosphere
1) get rid of the arena auditions.
2) have people apply via youtube and the top 100 per likes get invited to audition in front of the judges. I would also like the xfactor people to go out and actively seek to find more talented people.. why do we almost never hear of people with stage school backgrounds auditioning (leona is the only one I can think of!)
3)Have fewer people at boot camp and give everyone the same chance over the weekend (don't kick people out at the beginning or halfway through)
4) bootcamp should be judged on four activities:
a) solo acapella/ piano performance
b) working in a recording studio
c) choreography / acting (ie music video/stage performance)
d) working with others
b+c+d could be brought together for a final group performance (mimed/partly sung live)
5) judges houses should stay largely the same but please make sure that we get to see the second performances on xtra factor.
6) the live shows are currently so boring. We either have singing candles or people jigging around but singing out of tune. Please can we accept that this is not how the music industry works. Artists pre-record sections or all of their tracks before hand so that an actual entertaining 'performance' can be made. Live sections can be sung.
Get rid of the dated narrow themes they are so pointless.
These that we should have are ones that really show a different side or can be adapted to the artist. Most weeks should not have a theme but then sometimes have a theme like big band or stripped back, playing an instrument or musicals.
7)I would also like them to show more of what the contestants get up to in the week - not having endless chats with their mentor or attending film premieres, but working in the recording studio, learning choreography, taking acting/voice/fame lessons, and interacting together in the house (not hotel)
8)I would also love if they bring back the celebrity mentor an the bit where they do a sessions which each contestant and then sing with them in the show. Potentially the judges could pick a 'best in show' each week and that person wins a celebrity masterclass/duet the following week.
9) voting needs to be more transparent and easier (cheaper). If voting was free then more people would vote, they would be more involved and so viewing figures would be higher and that would mean bigger advertising revenues so making up any loss in income from phone calls. voting could be online or something instead.
10) no wildcards or silly twists, no judges spats, no accusing people of bullying or being a diva. Everyone hates all that fake drama.
Basically I want the xfactor to be like the glee project!!
Gary Barlow, Emeli Sande, Ed Sheeran, Adele
Auditions: Go back to conference rooms. It was more entertaining watching the judges just point and laugh at auditionees.
Bootcamp: Keep the live audience only for the final solo performances to see how they react with a crowd. The judges each choose 3 acts from each category they want to progress to the live shows then open the voting lines to narrow the 48 acts to 12. This would make more money and eliminate the somewhat tedious Judges Houses stage.
Live Shows:
1. Condense the live shows so there are only 6, making it more bearable for everybody. This way there is a double elimination each week, and only 2 people in the final.
2. Get rid of the Sunday night results show. After all the acts have performed, have a break (5 minutes), a guest performer who does a set of 2 or 3 songs (15 minutes) and then another break (5 minutes), leaving 20 minutes to vote. Then announce the bottom three, the one with the least votes and the bottom two who have a sing-off.
3. GET RID OF DEADLOCK. Once a majority has been reached, the fourth judge will not need to vote (e.g. If two judges already vote to send home one act, then that act is going home!)
4. Have the mentors and contestants co-write their Winners Song. It would be loads better than covers.
Post-X Factor: The winnings change to a £5 million recording contract, with their mentors acting as their director and co-writer for the future. That way, the winner has more chance of success. Unless we get another Chris Maloney...
Thoughts?