Yes, tell that to Cat Deeley's millions of American fans.

I don't have a roll-eyes smiley big enough for this. Simon Cowell wouldn't be the success he is in the US if there was the amount of latent xenophobia you are projecting. Nor Piers Morgan. Nor Len Goodman. Nor dozens of A-list British actors.

Come back with a reasonable reply, not stupid unfounded generalizations. Of course there will always be a tiny group of xenophobic idiots, but its a minority. If US audiences hate Steve Jones as a host, perhaps its because... he's not any good at it? Consider the idea, please.

^^^This

For all the people posting one quote from an idiot and saying "WELL! This confirms what we all thought of those...Americans!" , how would you like it if Americans were to read your comments and say, "Just like a Brit to get all wound up about something like this. Just shows that i was right and they're all miserable, uptight creatures."

If that's enough for you, then I pity you.

I really like having input from American forum members and I'm sure most on here feel the same way.

dont see why steve jones is getting all the criticism here

these are live shows and cant over-run and he'll be having the producers and director screaming at him through his ear piece to get on with it and push the judges to make a decision

blame the amateur dramatics from nicole scherzinger and paula abdul trying to fake the tears to look as if they care and telling the contestants how much they love them all

He's getting it here because this is a thread about him, correct?

Equally as bad as Jones is the announcer they've hired for the US version. And guess what? He's American. But he's not bad BECAUSE he's American. He's bad because he's bad. Its that simple. The same way Jones isn't bad because he's Welsh. He's ALSO bad simply because he's bad.

Hey chill out, i meant nationalism i just couldn't place the word earlier.

he's awful, what an idiot

i didn't mean why hes getting all the criticism on this forum i meant regarding this situation

i am not trying to say hes good , he does look a bit wooden tbh but people should realise hes not the one who controls the timings and that hes just following the instructions he is being given by the backroom people about time wasting by the judges

You tell me off for having a go at someone for giving America a bad name, and then YOU make a sweeping statement yourself about the UK.

Tut, tut.

The irony was that I was under the impression that Brits all had personalities like Prince Charles until I had an opportunity to interact with them more frequently. Just goes to show...

I don't think he deserves undue criticism for hurrying Paula along or anything like that.

The illustrations of his inappropriateness for this show go much further back. He's just not charismatic, he doesn't give any sense of control of the process of running the show, he doesn't appear to have much natural wit (his few attempts at jokes come off as forced and kind of creepy), and worst of all he doesn't appear to work "off the cuff" very well--an essential skill for a presenter/host doing a LIVE show.

Look at Tom Bergeron, Cat Deeley, Ryan Seacrest... for a few examples both Americans and Brits should know of people doing the same job who don't have these issues. These people are confident and in control. They have other people controlling the timing, who also mess up, but they are never caught flat-footed and always exude charm, a sense of flow, a sense of humor, and a feeling of authority. THAT'S what it means to be a good show presenter. Its a hard job, but there are many people who do it magnificently.

Do you not know what the word "if" means?

It really annoys me when the judges especially Simon (as it's his show so he wrote the rules!) don't 'send home' an act and 'save' one instead. Then the host has to clarify what they're saying. Dermot is always having to tell them to say it the right way round. How hard is it?

and also, i've read pretty nasty comments about kelly very similar to the "threatening an american... go back to his island" comment made one random posted on youtube which i copied and pasted.

point is, people get worked up when they're frustrated and say stupid things to get their point across, don't fixate on it... focus on the fact that Steve Jones sucks at his job,

Yes, doing his job with the empathetic abilities of a psychopath who is unable to read a situation.

I'm not surprised that many Americans haven't warmed to him and have described him as a robot.

It's not as though he'd have come off much better to a UK audience either. I'm no fan of Dermot O'Leary but he is very good at measuring certain situations like this and knows the right thing to say.
Steve Jones seemed to be working on autopilot and going through the motions as though he was navigating a 3 point turn as he was checking out his hair in the wing mirror.

You were still baiting, in my opinion. For the record, I wasn't slating Americans at all. I was specifically slating the ones who live up to the stereotype, which does exist. It's no different than if I'd said something about Frankie's stereotypical "bad boy" routine on the UK X Factor giving young lads a bad name, for example.

Yes, there's been xenophobic remarks coming from both sides of the pond. They kind of detract away from the subject and make Steve Jones look good in comparison.

He was supposedly offered the UK job before O'Dreary, but turned it down because of prior commitments.


Voting closes earlier because the US process allows for a considerably higher volume. May as well pin a similarly trite conspiracy theory to the UK results too, given that they could check how the voting was panning out whenever they wanted.

It must be real chore seeing shadows everywhere, simply whilst watching a TV show. She was upset, as anyone who'd invested so much time in something would be. The fact that "protocol" wasn't her primary concern is a human response, not a deviation from some imaginary "script".


Kate Thornton was consistently out of her depth, and on occasion damn rude.


He made a complete mess of it, and Cowell quite noticeably wasn't impressed with him, either.

For the record, I wasn't criticizing what you said. You didn't make a judgement, just said that it's the sort of thing that people would use to make a judgement. I agree with that, but added that people that will use the isolated actions of an individual to apply to an entire group aren't any better. My comment was directed at you, but to all the other people chiming in with their, "This just proves it!" nonsense.

My comment about Steve Jones wasn't judging the UK public. It was pointing out that Steve sucks. Besides, you guys turn on each other enough based on voting patterns on XF that you don't need an outsider to fan the flames

That reminds me very much of a show he did here which was a celebrity comedy dance show called Let's Dance for Comic Relief.
He had this presentational style where he had a kind of sarcastic mocking style which was supposed to be funny. But it felt humourless and didn't really seem to work. It was like sarcasm but delivered in a mechanical way and without the humour and charm you'd normally expect to go along with it, if that makes sense.

That's my #1 critique with him. Nothing comes off as natural. Especially bad are his "strike a pose!" moves when he has to say something dramatic.

Well to be fair he does have a point about low standards of television in the UK right now doesn't he?

I mean generally speaking of course. As obviously amongst the amount of bad stuff we do have shows to be proud of too.

But I suppose the same thing could be leveled at American TV too couldn't it I guess? That much of it is low standard but there are very impressive high points?

I prefer that we all just admit that we have bad taste and embrace the living hell out of it!

Voting closes earlier because the USA spans four different time zones, six if you count Alaska and Hawaii. The audience on the east coast sees the broadcast three hours earlier than the audience on the west coast.