It's time the public got the chance to vote off the producers.

First we had the degrading sight of contestants having to beg to stay in the competition and then last night in a week themed 'This is me', songs were chosen by the producers for the contestants to sing, some of which they'd never even heard of. What an absolute debacle.

You have Louisa who had consistently said her idol was Beyonce singing a song released 30 years before she was born to which her response was 'Who?'. And why is she now being dressed up to look like Leona Lewis. Is this to feed some Cowell fetish? I am going to ask the bookies for odds of Simon calling Louisa, Leona by mistake.

The producers' egos are writing cheques their ability simple can't cash. Clearly these bunch of control freaks see producing Celebrity Big Brother as a step up in career and are using X Factor as a C.V.

Time to vote off the weakest link!

Do these people actually have any musical knowledge, or are they in the music industry. None of us know as we never see or hear from any of them.

Ah, you're just not getting that this is all a pantomime, and not a very good one at that. The show is not - nor ever has been - what they claim, that being an open and fair contest to find a genuine new singing talent/ someone with the voice and charisma, etc to go global.

All of Cowell's shows are geared to the aggrandizement of himself and his judges, to increase their own star power while pretending to give a toss about those who usually struggle to be even potential rivals, or who are suppressed via crafty editing. All the elements of the pantomime are there, with the tiny bit of power given to the masses when pre-picked contestants supposedly compete.

At this stage of each series, Cowell and co already know the two or three acts they'd like to promote, and if the public throws a curve ball, the system is simply adapted to use that as an opportunity. A scenario which leads to the likes of Chico the goat-herder becoming a media star! Once this year's chump is crowned, the goal is to sell a million plus records, and as many albums as possible on the back of that. Then the hoopla dies down, and the winner becomes old news....unless they do actually have some real ability, which has only happened twice; Leona Lewis and Will Young. Neither of whom set the world alight.

We now watch X-Factor with what I call a twaddle filter. We fast forward through everything except contestants singing.

You are probably not too far wrong with these comments.

I did the exact same thing - just on YouTube instead.

I just can't be arsed watching a two hour show when 45 minutes of that time will be adverts, and another 40 minutes will be padded out crap I have no desire to watch.

Intriguingly, I wonder how the public would respond to each performance last night if they just saw the performance but no VT beforehand, and no judges comments afterwards.

Agree, time for Richard Holloway to go, get some new producers in.

I wish the ITV bosses would grow a spine and do something about this.

If the international vote counts and fourth impact are runaway winners the public will turn against Cowell as it will be the biggest fix yet. You can see from the YouTube views that fourth impact have ten times as many views as the others, and most is international. Bye bye X factor!!

4th Power/Impact/??? 24m hits
Louisa Johnson 12m hits

Not quite 10x but get your point. Also believe she's already signed for SyCo so expect more standing ovations!

I understand it's a show and not a competition, but you do get the feeling you just get whats in the same producers record collection year after year. Wouldn't be so bad if he wasn't in his late forties with a wife and 2.5 children

... the Stylists needs sacking too. look at 4th Impact. they looked ridiculous last night. 2 of them are already in their late 20's fgs! the main reason why this girl group is not popular in their own country is because of their 'not very attractive' looks. now even uk are mocking them.

and whoever replaced Brian Friedman didn't do a good job as well. Alien's choreo was a mess. it's difficult enough to familiarise with all the actual group members, but their production number with loads of background dancers on stage, i couldn't tell who amongst them are the contestants. lol

... and not to mention about this week's supposed theme..

i love x factor, so i hope it gets improved this series. i will truly miss the show if ever they go off air permanently.

When someone has just performed a song and the first thing Cheryl says is "you look amazing" I think it's time for a re-think. Singing should be of key importance, not the £1k dress that said singer is wearing.

DS have reported that X Factor didn't even get 6 million viewers last night. That's on par with when Eastenders were going through its dark days about 8-9 years ago when EE was struggling to get the viewers tuning in every night.

The problem here is ITV. As long as ITV are raking it in, I don't think they really care about the state of X Factor. It's when ITV start making a loss on the show (is that even possible?) then they will call emergency meetings with Simon Cowell but I sadly just don't see it happening. The fact is 5 million people last night were happy to sit through 45 minutes worth of commercials says it all.

But if the sponsors paying to advertise during a show that rivals Strictly in the ratings are finding out that 4m less are tuning in then they're not going to be happy.

If the ratings continue to stagnate and do poorly against rival shows then the amount ITV will be able to command per 30-second slot will diminish. It's currently getting less than 6 million viewers and fewer people seem to be watching as the series progresses, which is exactly the opposite of what they would have hoped for or expected.

Sorry I was referring to the amount of likes to the video rather than views. I also agree with comments about looking great being a smokescreen for 'but you were s***

Their almost, sort-of, kinda direct rivals Strictly have had the same show pretty much for more 10 years or so. 3 of the 4 judges have remained exactly the same, the format is exactly the same, even the weeks are the same with the Halloween and Blackpool weeks being exactly the same.

Compare that with X-Factor with their many different judges changes over the years, format changes, surprises, twists, room auditions then arena auditions back to room auditions back to room auditions, 4 judges, 3 judges, wild cards,... It's the classic example of producers who mistook the saying 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it', for their mantra of 'if it ain't broke let's change the format umpteen times until it is'

Had they left well alone from the start only making changes when they absolutely had to, like Strictly, it'd probably be getting close to the ratings it had in the early series.

Having The Mime Artist comment on anyone's singing ability is a joke itself.

I am thinking watching their performances next week on YouTube because no wonders audiences tune out these days and also people now days have different ways to catch up and why BBC getting lots of views because they don't take ad breaks but I will still watch the Sunday night result show live going on air. The good thing on Saturday night no xtra Factor so I can watch the show any time now.

Oh that's why Cheryl's acts have a little help in the vocal dept. it takes one to know one