Simon was great with Paula. Paula is a lot more sensitive than I thought.

Steve Jones was a disaster. I don't get why they chose him to begin with. He is a terrible host.

Wow OP, calm down. I understand why Paula was upset, but its not her fault at the end of the day. America just hasn't got to know the groups and the other 9 acts are just too popular.

As for the incident, I thought that Steve should have gone to Paula last, but I don't blame him for what he did - It's his job. He probably had someone screaming in his ear to tell him to hurry up.

Some of those comments made were bordering on Racist!

America doesn't hate him because he's Welsh. America hates him because he's a Robot BUILT in Wales. Much more logical.

I really wouldn't waste too much energy defending someone as bad at his job as this guy.

I think a lot of Americans would resent any non-US presenter. Dermot is must as assertive with the UK judges because he too is just doing his job. I have no doubt he would get the same response because of his nationality.

He's not great but he was doing his job. Paula gets paid to be professional, not sensitive.

He's a better host than Nick Cannon.

She completely fell apart, he gave her his support. That's great in my book.

As much as I have been saying since the start that Steve Jones is a horrible choice for a presenter and should be axed, people like the one I quoted give Americans a terrible reputation and surely aren't worthy of having their opinion (assuming they're being serious and not trolling) parroted around the internet.

Steve Jones is the perfect example of someone going from being a big fish in a small pond to a small fish in a big pond. For all his cockiness over here in the UK, he clearly can't hack working in the US as he is just not suitable for it. I think Steve has been unhappy there since the start but is trying to save face by plodding on. I wouldn't be surprised if it will be a relief for him to come back over here. I've rarely seen anyone so obviously out of their depth before.

So what do the lovely, hateful comments posted on here about Cheryl Cole say about the posters? Really...be honest


I know it's popular to throw the race card around, but...seriously???? You need to learn what racism means. Nationalism, maybe. But racists? What, the big bad white American was mean to the poor little white Brit?


Right...that's why we hate Cat Deeley so much on So You Think You Can Dance

Dermot is really good...particularly because of the empathy he shows towards the contestants...something Cat is great at as well. It's not nationalism that's preventing the US audience from warming to Steve. The issue with Steve wasn't even that act from last night. The issue with Steve is that:[LIST][*]He has no charm[*]He has no personality[*]He looks like he's painting by numbers[*]He has no chemistry with the judges[*]He has no chemistry with the contestants[*]He's not managing the flow of the show well[*]His voice is monotonous[/LIST]
In other words...he flat out sucks as a host. If he's considered a talented host in the UK, then you guys have some pretty low standards.

Oh, please. That's nothing. You should hear what Americans say about Californians And they're the same nationality as us. And don't even bring up the Mexicans.

Take the quote for what it is. A response by a dumb animal, irrespective of nationality. If that is something that British people would use to judge all Americans by, there's plenty on The Daily Mail (or even DS forums) by Brits that makes that quote look tame by comparison. Would you say it's fair to judge all British by such comments?

Uh...he's not.

The only thing he's particularly known for is presenting niche programmes dedicated to adolescents i.e. T4. He's never had a long stint of presenting a popular programme in the UK and I would suspect that many people here wouldn't really have a clue who he was.

Well, hell...if he's not even famous, why the hell did Simon bring him over here to ruin our Thursday nights???

That's a very good question and I have wondered what Steve has on Simon because that is the only answer I can come up with I first saw Steve co presenting with Claudia Winkleman (another c.rap host but that's another story) on Let's dance for comic relief and he was terrible, cutting Claudia off and looking wooden and insincere. I was amazed to hear he had got this gig

I don't think Steve is doing a great job, I never thought he was the right person for the job in the first place but where does that embarrassing comment come from? How to reinforce and confirm most of the world's perception of Americans in three sentences.

I don't know, lol. It's not like Cowell stole Steve Jones from another high-profile show. He's just not a household name or face over here. He is cute though

What was really stupid here is that he told Simon that he had the deciding vote.
Then he had to correct himself and take that back.

I agree. Youtube is full of hundreds of thousands of such comments. It doesn't really signify anything.

I assume he had someone shouting in his earpiece that he'd got it totally wrong.

It was all a bit confusing and chaotic, tbh. I bet Dermot watched it and laughed his ass off.

I dont get what the guy did wrong. I was expecting to see some kind of obnoxious bullying of a sobbing woman.

Its obvious he was being run by earpiece and responding to producers instructions - they'd have been screaming in his ear for him to move it on to stay on time, and get clarity - plus they'd have loved the drama so they'd demand he pushed her. It actually wasn't that different from the time Cheryl abstained and Dermot pushed her too. I absolutely love Dermot as a presenter and I get this guy is one of the bogeymen on here, but I'm not sure what else he could have done?

is it me or did it look like Simon whispered to Paula....*you vote for lakoda rain and so will I and it'll go to deadlock*

Yeah why were the microphones dipped while they sorted it out?

I'm on the fence though I half suspect this was done deliberately to make the decision look chaotic and not at all rigged. Obviously it is rigged. Voting is for two hours the night before so they know well in advance which acts will be in jeopardy. Compare that to the UK where voting continues until near the end of the results broadcast. With the extra time I'd expect some elaborately choreographed nonsense in the weeks to come. This is an early piece of misdirection.

I don't believe for a second Paula didn't understand the voting protocol. I suppose we could argue over whether she was intentionally trying to confuse everybody to make herself look less complicit in choosing between her acts or if she did a bad job at following a strange script.

The American forums are weirdly critical of Steve Jones for hurrying the judges. They don't seem to understand yet how contrived this show is. There are criticisms of spending so much time on introductions and guest performers when the important thing is to hear the judges' opinions. Obviously it's all carefully planned to create a sense of tension and the illusion that events are nearly out of control. From the looks of it they're going to try and make the cuts look more spontaneous and less fabricated than we're used to here. Good luck with that.

On one American forum I got a ludicrous warning from a moderator informing me that a post had been deleted because unless I was a member of the production staff I couldn't possibly know that there's an order of preference for acts to leave the competition. LOL.

By the way Lakoda Rayne continue to be absolutely abysmal as they have been from the start at judges' rental homes. The dark haired girl had a total melt down at the start of the sing off, one of the worst I've seen on these shows, so bad that not even the two tall blonde girls stood next to her could cover it up with pretty smiles. I'm fairly sure one of them was giving her the cold shoulder throughout the performance she messed up so much. Absolutely dire. And yet they must be the new best band in the world now that they've stayed and the old one departed.

By all accounts there was a big country music awards on TV at the same time as the live show so whether that hit their vote who can say. Although I presume actual fans of country music would recognise the difference between a country act and being told by an actor on television that four girls who just met each other are country singers.

How quaintly naive of them

ok, so the first comment that i copied and pasted was clearly a little psycho with the "back to your island, threatening american" ... i just quickly pasted a bunch of comments of people "shouting" at steve to support my point. BUT now it's morning in the USA, and still feel the same way.

Had no problem with him before, even though he sucked. But it's just every week he's always about the earpiece. Compare to Ryan Seacrest, who never seemed stressed, trying to rush because of time or rules... He went the flow COMFORTABLY. Dermot as well... or the other lady who hosted in Leona's year.. or ANY OTHER HOST ON TV!!!

Just think he's out of his depth, and I'm surprised he hasn't improved, I'm sure Simon's telling him he needs to change.

I don't think he's a good host - and I think hving him makes the show dull - but I don't think he did anything wrong there. Paula was being indecisive, understandably, and he was trying to encourge her to make a decision. He was doing his job.