How can you give a fair judgement of someones performance when they constantly praise, stick up and vote for their own acts, even when it's clear that they are the inferior act?

How Gary could sit there week after week praising Christopher who was nothing more than a working men's club singer and vote for him over better singers just makes the whole judging panel a total joke. What's the point in giving 2 of the judges a vote when they always vote for their own acts to stay in regardless of how good they are? May as well just have two people voting because that's basically what it comes down to.

It sounds a good idea so there would be less bias, but I think theres a Cost Factor, if the current judges were just mentors, you would then end up with Judges of lesser quality cause the money they could pay the judges would be less.

I would like to see the rivalry, between the judges disappear, and make the judges fell that they were able to vote off there own acts, if they feel another act is better

An alternative would be to reduce the panel to 3 judges then comments could be more detailed as they would have a bit more time and they would save money towards having seperate mentors.

I totally agree ...mentors won't give honest critique on their own acts

The problem for me with the mentoring is that it feels like the contestants only have a 10% chance of being given even a half-decent song. A lot of people criticise judges like Tulisa and Demi for not being experienced enough but even the likes of Simon and LA make ridiculous choices sometimes.

I still cringe every time I think of the song Simon gave the Conway Sisters (one vooooiiiiiceeeeee, singing in the darkneeeeeesssssss!!!!!!). Sharon was a useless mentor as well, even though I didn't mind her as a judge.

Does it matter? There are three other judges to pass comment. And we've seen that when their own acts suck mentors might not criticise them but they will make it clear they favour someone else to win.

Having mentors AND judges separately as is often suggested just means far too many people giving feedback. IIRC Fame Academy did this and nobody should ever learn anything from Fame Academy (apart from "how not to produce a hit entertainment show").

More importantly, it's a legal issue and the judges must be in competition with each other because it's part of the format which cannot be changed.

won't happen.

THAT is the show's premise...:sleep:

I've often thought there should be a head judge (Simon Cowell esque - bit pantomime baddie but also respected in his/her critique) and they don't have a catagory to mentor. Then have a 3 mentors/judges who have a category each. These judges should change each year to keep it fresh and be 'current' in the music business. That way there is a deciding vote and none of the deadlock rubbish and the judges are under the microscope a bit more from the head judge.....

Agreed, they won't ever change it, it is designed to cause judges to form attachment etc so that when other judges critique them it will cause upset and argument , it set out that way to add to controversy, the show set out to be a credible singing competition but has not been one for many years. If it was a serious competition, the likes of wagner, jedward, rylan, etc would never ever have been there

But it's called the X factor, it wasn't supposed to be just about singing - it's about having that special something that makes you a 'star' not just a singer. That's why some of the acts don't end up with success - that and a lot of luck and being in the right place at the right time. There are loads of people out there who can sing who never manage to break through beacuase it's about more than just that talent.

I'm not saying that the Rylan's or the Jedwards of this world (although i have to confess to Rylan being a bit of a guilty pleasure this year!!). I think Olly Murs is a great example, he's got a good but not amazing voice but has something about him that's very appealing and watchable.

It has also been argued many times over the years that they should let the judges be mentors and gives critiques but not vote and let the lowest public vote stand each week.

The same thing was said in America the first year x Factor was launched. Simon Cowell addressed this and said its the foundation of the show and he will not remove it from the format. He strongly believes that the public often do NOT get it right with their bottom 2 choices, therefore it gives the judges the power to at least save one of them, the so called experts. What he is really saying is, it gives them a better chance to manipulate who leaves and who doesn't lol

I agree, but the viewing audience take it to extreme and the show has lost a lot of credibility because of it, it does in fact undermine the contestants who are clearly stronger singers. I think what people have to remember is this....it is at the end of the day still a singing competition , people like jedward, rylan, wagner etc had entertaiment value yes, but had very little vocal talent, Like Simon Cowell himself has always explained it.....the X is someone who has a good if not better singing voice and also has something very special, a likability, a draw, a personality that people love etc, rylan had personality and stage presence, but he did not have the key factor with is a good voice , he was missing a factor completely.

Robbie Williams has the X Factor, Olly murs has the x factor, Robbie williams does not have the greatest voice i agree, but he has brought out straight swing albums and he has a better than average voice, same with Olly

I think they could continue with the current judge/mentor set up if judges switched categories half way through. They wouldn't know who they were getting next so they'd need to make sure they got rid of the duff ones so they wouldn't end up with them later.

There's nothing wrong with the judge-mentor system, in my opinion, but I do not understand why they have to defend their acts ALL the time, especially dishonestly. Their role on a Saturday is to judge (with impartiality); their role during the week is to mentor. They are separate roles and should remain so.

I would be completely honest as a judge and even be prepared to send my own act home over someone else's. To my knowledge, only Simon Cowell has ever been brave enough to do that (with the Conway Sisters), although I do believe there are occasions in which a judge has voted off one of his/her acts when two of then were in the bottom.

For all the complaining, this year is the first time that the act with the fewest number of public votes has been sent home every week.

Having separate mentors and judges would be a disaster as the show would be completely dominated by slanging matches between them all.

Who said anything about who got what votes? people are discussing what they feel does not work in the format

You are placing your own opinion on that though when you sit and say ...how could gary sit and praise Christopher? he is just a pub singer?

Gary sang a duet with Christopher and even though im not a christopher fan it was clear that he in fact had a stronger voice than Gary did.

Music is very selective, there are plenty of people in this country who out and out prefer a straight forward , strong singer , some people like opera, some people like stage shows, some people prefer more complex vocals , and types of music vary. Christpher was dated, he had no real stage presence and did not have the x factor, but as a straight forward singer he had a stronger voice than some of the others who left.
He maybe was not to your taste etc etc etc, but he was obviously to the taste of his fans. If you hate green beans, you cannot then dictate to someone who loves green beans and tell them they are not allowed to eat them lol

It's true they should only have judges voting if they don't have an act in the bottom 2.

If a judge has two acts in the bottom 2 then just the other 3 judges can vote then you would avoid the situation of a judge refusing to vote against one of their own acts (KELLY, LOUIS, CHERYL).

If the bottom two acts have two seperate mentors, then the other 2 judges can just vote.

Plus have the judges voting done in seperate boothes so they aren't influenced by other judges voting decisions.