I'm a bit of a noob here, but I've seen enough to know that I'm not the only one who thinks some of the acts were let down by their supposed managers.
Be interesting to see what some of you would have done in terms of song choices, performances etc if you were in charge of some of the acts?

For what it's worth... here's a couple of views of mine.

If I had been managing Cassie, I would have recognised she had one of the best voices in the competition and worked on her image and stage presentation.

I would have given her a completely new look for the first show, make her very glam and pop star-ish. An uptempo number with a dance routine and dancers on stage with her. Show she wasn't just a voice but could perform like a real pop act.

Go for something modern, britney's toxic might have worked.

She would have stood out more for that, and we'd have seen her more as a performer rather than a "little girl with a big voice." Sharon could have done a lot more.

Roberta, awful dress, awful song choice in her only week. Difficult to make someone as naturally beautiful as Roberta look average but the song and dress combined to achieve just that. A norah jones, katie melua type number might have gone down well, should have put her in something tight and dark. These were the youngsters after all, Sharon should have accentuated their youth and modernity with song choice and clothes...

rattling on too much now... G4, I would have picked a soul song for them to sing one of the weeks. Something classic like You've lost that loving feeling, or When a man loves a woman. Even though I liked Steve, he definitely had a few dodgy performances and never ended up in the bottom two. He was picking material though that a large cross section of people liked. Showing the public a different more soulful side of G4 might well have added an extra dimension to their appeal, and would have given them a direct chance of competing with Steve.
Sharon made a big deal of their versatility, but in actual fact they made a lot of different musical genres sound similar with their phrasing. Should have gone for Steve's core audience with a soul number, would have been better than Britney for them anyway.
2 To Go. I know it sounds like an insult, but I would have given them a classic track by Ray Charles - You are my sunshine. Most of you will know the tune, but you should hear the Ray Charles version which is a duet with a girl and I can't for the life of me remember her name or find it on the net... It's upbeat, funky, could have showcased both their voices much better and the only danger would be the whole blind cliche thing. Either that or they could have been bolder and picked a song which wasn't a duet and made it into one. Stevie Wonder's Lately. Maybe I'm not getting past the blind thing, but Peter had a fantastic soul voice and I love Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles.
So you've read my thoughts... do you think you could have done better than the judges in any areas?

You know, having really read this through and having a good think at each of the artists that you mention and the changes in routine ect, I think it's pretty creative.

I think you should audition for the next X-Factor. Not as an artist but as a judge. Put it this way, you couldn't be any worse than that wee toad Louise.

your right about roberta

lol. Anyone would be better than Louis Walsh. I genuinely don't see the guy as having any special talent spotting gift. I just think he's got a bit lucky with timing...

You were very kind anyway... judging would be good fun...

Hey, I'm real sorry to insult you by being better than Louise.
I think your probably more talented than all three.

So carry on the good work. Your obviously making along these lines and if not, you should be. Keep it up. Your observations are good.

The cassie idea started off in my mind last week watching record of the year when Girls Aloud came on. All of them have really grown into their roles in terms of looks, make-up, dress sense. They are getting the right advice from stylists etc to achieve a look that works for them. Some people might see it as fake but we expect our pop acts to look a certain way. Cassie was a great looking girl, she could have been given a real intensive make over.
Can just see her, looking a million dollars, bass and drums thumping, doing a dance routine and singing at same time. It's tried and tested, it works.

The judges are a big part of the pull of the show. Going for an unknown would only lead to people going, who da **** is that plonker?

So, no change from Louis in that respect then...

I think it could be good to have an unknown manager on the next show against Sharon and Louis. I really don't think Simon should be a manager. As he is awarding the contract to the winner I think he should be impartial.

I think Simon does ok, but I see the point you are making. It was pretty noticeable though that he did remain fair to G4 despite wanting to win. He gave their performances the thumbs up they deserved on the night of the final.

It might be interesting if the judges had to swap acts or something. Not sure how it would work but I'm just thinking what would Simon have done with G4 etc...or perhaps what would Sharon have done with Steve..lol.

Oh what a great idea - change the mentor in the last week (but not tell the judges who they'll be getting).

Any more ideas out there for XFactor 2??

He hadn't exactly been constructive in previous weeks though

Zelena I think he was constructive. I can see if you were a real G4 fan that you wished he would say something more in their favour - he did say he couldn't decide whether they were great or bad, and he wasn't sure how the public would take to them.

He aimed most of his criticism at Louis too for his song choices.

I think it's important to remember what Simon does is to look at the chance of commercial success any act would have. I must admit I struggle to see what market G4 will go into, and I think he struggled with that too.
But they do seem to have a lot of fans. Some of them very loyal and supportive, and if that is any reflection they should do ok. I think as you G4 fans made it more and more obvious with your votes each week you managed to turn his opinion around about G4. He was very rarely critical of a performance. Song choice, yes, but not usually the performance.

Not sure if they should change in the last week or not. Might be better all the way through.

How about if each manager starts with 3 acts as they did in this series.

Same format...bottom two do a sing off for the judges vote. Whoever loses has to leave, the act that stays gets transferred to the judge of the top vote winning act of that week.

This would have 3 effects I think (I'm sorry if it's got complicated.)

Firstly - they would have to announce which act got the most votes each week.

Secondly, it would be funny to watch someone who got awful comments from a judge then have to work with that act for the next week, and interesting to see what they could do for them.

Thirdly, it means that managers who were consistently poor, like Louis, might only end up with one act after week 1. It would be a chance for him to buck his ideas up.


Can you imagine how much Simon would gloat if he had 4 acts and Louis only had 1 after 1 week? lol...

Thats probably the way it would go.

Absolutely agree with you on Roberta. When that group first showed up at Sharons home she had them each stand up and sing a song. I can´t remember what song Roberta chose but at that time she looked promising and in the vein you mentioned. That approach would have worked well with her. Sharons put her on stage all fluffy and light and really bland so people saw a pretty girl with a pretty voice but pretty damn forgettable when I think you could have easily sold her as a stunner with a deep, thoughtful serious side and that would have made her more interesting.

Not exactly with you on Cassie because we saw what happened the one time she needed to perform a "dance routine" (and I use that loosely) she couldn´t concentrate on the two. I think Sharon should have started with the same approach, strong female ballads, but the styling and song choices were appalling and dated. In the Xtra factor Cassie seems very unlike the image Team Sharon put up on stage each week. They dressed her like some young sweet innocent thing and gave her sweet ballads to sing that were at times too old for her. Major conflict going on. I´m going to make an assumption here and my theory is Sharon´s(and her daughters) very public bitching fests with some of the young female singing stars of today makes it impossible for Sharon to competently manage a young singers career(female) because she will automatically discard anything by them and try her damndest to go the opposite direction.

From what I saw of Cassie in the Xtra factor etc..she was a teenager with a sense of humour, some balls and not adverse to the odd curse. Tell me she wouldn´t have done so much better singing something like "Beautiful" than those dreadful choices "All by Myself" and that Alfie song. But you know Sharon was never going to choose a Christina Aquilera song. I despised Cassie´s performances when the live shows started and I went into sugar shock at Robertas but oddly enough I thought prior those two were the more promising of the lot.

Agree with you there on nearly every count. I thought Cassie should have sung Beautiful as well and I think you are spot on with the observations about her personality, let it come out instead of the orphan annie little child thing that was projected.

I might as well add a bit more about my dance routine theory...lol.

Nearly every performance in these type of shows, the singer comes out and stands there and sings. The girls aloud girls did the same when they were in their show. But those girls now have some moves going on. I think Cassie could have learned to dance a routine and sing at the same time, given enough work on it. Ok so they may have not had a huge amount of time to work, but they could have done more. If she was always going to be in Sharon's 3, then they could have started work straight away when Sharon got the youngsters. Dancing and singing isn't easy at the same time, and you do need to rehearse and practice a lot. But the question I always ask myself when watching an act is, can I see this act on TOTP alongside Beyonce, Britney, Justin Timberlake, Robbie Williams etc.
Michelle M for instance, sorry, just no way. She looks like an amateur in comparison. Cassie and Roberta both had a lot of natural talent and they should have done better.

great observation on cassie and roberta. what was sharon thinking when she made her sing alfie??? JEEEEZZ!!!! she a young modern woman and she should do a britney or christina or even a beyonce-- just to hype up the young crowd--get them to sing, dance, cheer on their feet!!!! she looked too old fashioned!!!! i mean ALL BY MYSELF???? sure its a power ballad but its too dated!!!!!it just screamed karaoke to me. she has great promise but thoroughly mismanaged! what a shame as i like cassie and would want to see more of her in the future. as for roberta, she is a WOW! i mean on looks alone, she'd sell records! could have had a longer shelf like--had it not been for a weak carpenters song and the hotel lounge singer look (Simon was right!) she sported on the first show!!! as stunning as she is, it would have been actually better to play down the looks and did more of an earthy, folksy look on her and made her sing joni mitchell as her voice had the same range...it would have been stunning.