Have taken a look at a few of the accounts of some of the remaining contestants on FB/Twitter etc, and there is nowhere near the interest from the public that there used to be.

I guess its shows how far XF has slipped.

agree. While the ratings are still acceptable (but way behind strictly now) the interest in contestants has fallen.

A few years back my Facebook feed would be filled with X factor comments during the show, nowadays XF barely gets a mention! The whole show is just far too obviously contrived nothing about it feels genuine these days.

Some time back i felt the judges really cared about their acts, the acts really were talented ordinary individuals who had been given a platform and we (the audience) had been offered the opportunity to form favourites and watch them grow as performers.

This all seems to have disappeared, numerous acts at boot camp we'd never seen before and at least one act progressing to six chair we've never even heard sing!

The judges don't seem to be genuine or care, Sharon is virtually mute and at least half the acts seem to be scouted with some even being quite well known performers!

The show is certainly losing its way i think!

On a positive note Dermot makes a very welcome return!

I can remember that even some of the early contestants used to have followings of hundreds of thousands. Now it is down to a few hundred in a lot of cases.

All the judges are really interested in is gaining publicity for theirselves. I don't think they give a hoot about their contestants.

Very true I also think the show has treated so many people badly over the years, contestants, auditionees, audiences both live and tv, judges, winners etc.... etc...

In the digital age we live in no company can afford to treat internal and external customers so badly if they do it will bite them on the ass and i guess X Factor is no different!

It's probably because there hasn't been any standout auditions this year. I mean, there's been very good auditions such as Caitlyn and a few others, but there's been nothing outstanding.

I think the show definitely reached its peak in 2010 and seemed to take a sharp decline when Simon and Cheryl left the next year. It's never really reached the same hype since.