Anyone else fed up with the constant sob stories, they are cringey and frustrating, it makes the show depressing. I don't give a shit if someone has made you audition, or had the year from hell so have loads of people get over it, it's no wonder the figures are down. Stop the sob stories and focus on the singing!

Yes. I actually thought they had scrapped them this year until Simon interrupted Christian just to get him to talk about his brother. Of course it was awful that his brother died, but did we really NEED to know about it?

sob stories should be banned as this doesn't affect vocal talent or lack of it

on a long enough time line everyone dies and everyones friends and relatives die, some sooner than earlier and under different circumstances but why should that have any bearing at all on a supposed talent-show?

I'm sick of it too, the violins, the sad backstory, Nicole on the verge of tears. with the appropriate backing and Dermot and co in awe and ever so slightly wiping the tears from the eyes with their sleeves I can't help but cringe X(. Express your story through your song instead of trying to garner sympathy votes.

I don't believe some of then. That boy sleeps in the cupboard under the stairs like harry potter? But no-ones called social services.

That man had to ask a stranger on the street if he passed his driving test? But the examiner tells you verbally

Why not just introduce yourself by name and where from? Time to get to know more about the contestants later on if they get through. I would like to see more auditioned. edit a little bit more maybe as maybe a little bit cold.

They are all so pre-planned and set up, and it's that factor that makes them even more cringeworthy. That girl tonight, name escapes me already.... who was asked "have you only one child" WHO ASKS THAT.... and why would that be asked by any of the judges if circumstances were ordinary. But thats the point.... things are never ordinary on X-factor and the split second that question was asked, I said... here we go..... and sure enough the sad story of a poor child's demise unfolds. With no disrespect they are there to sing a song and see if they are good enough to be put through the the next round... end of. What's going on in their background at this point..... is NOTHING to do with either the judges or with us. It's getting to the point where we should nearly run a poll to see who can guess the amount of dead relatives we will have to hear about before bootcamp.

^Exactly, that one child question was so set up.

To answer the question. Yes, I am totally sick of it. I hate when they bring up dead relatives. Not because I'm heartless, I have a bunch of dead relatives, more dead than living honestly... It just grates me that somehow these things have to be brought up in order to get through. The judges know the right questions to ask to bring up the 'hidden' grief. It makes me wonder; do you have to mention you have had a loss or struggle in the application or what?
Then once that grief or bad time is revealed, stopping mid audition because the song isn't right and then going on to sing an emotional song that has a sentimental lyric is a must... it's just so contrived and it's a mockery I feel, it annoys me. The down point of the show.

What sort of person uses their dead son to use as a sob story to further their career. Just like the guy with the dead brother on Saturday, it disgusts me.

To be fair, the guy with the brother went in and sang a different song. After that they had to practically drag the story about his brother from him.

Oh my god please dont tell me you are THAT gullable to believe that. Or are you just joking ? You cant be serious.

Do you actually believe the "have you got another song you can sing us" fakery.

Jesus.

They would argue that it's a mawkish entertainment show, to garner viewers not praise....

Using a dead relative as a plot device is disgusting. As the show is pre-recorded there is no live comeback. The press will report X-Factor fix stories, which only publicise the show more.

The show deserves the drop in viewers, people will vote with their remotes....

Oh dear... I am afraid they did not have to drag the story out of him. The reason is.... they would have known all about the brother, scripted him into proceedings, went through the innocent "have you another song" tosh and lo and behold out comes the story.

The sooner all of us accept that X-factor is 100% scripted reality, no different to TOWIE, the better. I am sure there is a line up of many long deceased relatives we have yet to come to over the weeks, with judges on cue tipping heads to side... eyes watering, and comments like " I felt every line of that, you sang with emotion" BARF !!!!!

Also.... note all of them that have a two minute VT prior to going on..... no need to even ask if they are going through... they are !!! You don't waste valuable air time on a loser, except of course the losers they decide to use as the joke acts so we can all snigger along at how foolish the person is.

Bring back Hughie Green.... and Opportuntiy Knocks... it all seems suddenly more realistice... oh we can't can we... another one dead !!

How did he pass the theory? Did someone have to read him the questions & write the answers down for him?

To be fair to the contestants, they are asked a lot of personal questions in the preliminary auditions to get to this stage. This then allows the show to manipulate them, although in many cases the contestants will go along with it in the belief that the show has their interests at heart.

Sob stories are X Factor's bread and butter so I expect them, but what I hate is when they are used to prop up a less talented auditionee (Rebekah).


It is an unusual coincidence that they always have a tragic song from an animal charity advert in their back pocket. Just once I'd like someone to come on and say "I'm singing this for my dead grandma, this is Fifth Harmony's Work From Home".

I can't deal with the sob stories. The girl that was bullied and her dad helped her through it. Sorry but I am sure there are millions of times where one of our parents picked us up, its not unique and its cringe

I hadn't watched the X-Factor for many series until I saw both episodes on Saturday and Sunday. I see nothing has really changed about the format and the sob-stories are still as present and scripted as ever. It's all extremely predictable, but from the producers' point of view they're looking for 'human interest' stories that make it a more interesting programme than just someone coming up and singing. Personally, I find the whole programme tedious and pretty boring, but it's something I might put on and be watching in the background whilst I'm eating or doing something else in the room.

I can't stand them. They're almost invariably used to make somewhat ordinary and average singers stand out. There are probably dozens of equally, if not more, talented singers who have auditioned but would rather not exploit their own strife (if they have any) to get ahead of the game. It's just the producers go mad for anybody who's so forthcoming in dishing out their stories.

On the other side, some of them are hilarious in that they show what a parody of itself X Factor has become. Wasn't there one in a recent series where someone said something along the lines of "My parents split up *slow pianos and violins play*, it was a very tough time... But they got back together a couple of weeks later." It was almost something out of a Harry Hill sketch.

The "I live in a small town, and I'm indefinitely shackled within a 2 mile radius" is another hilarious one.