If you watch , you will see the same manipulations at work , more or less, each season.
IMO, this season has been the most obvious. I want to say so much about how it has affected people, but I am already treading too close to too far.

Saara is limited in what she can sing exceptionally, though she is never less than good. That is what makes her "safe" . Her talent makes her being through credible, yet they can send her home at mid point for lacking versatility and many not relating to her .

Caitlyn is a young performer with a pop/rock sound. The G Michael song, which I love, was so unsuited to her. It requires what she lacks and showed little of what makes her interesting. The girl can sing, and could have been through as easily as the other talented girls through.I heard the way her track was "off" , mentioned in that other thread, too.

Do you think Caitlyn has a chance of making the lives next year were she to audition again? They may be more open to the idea of a girl winner next year (assuming one doesn't win this year). I do wonder if she might need to lose some weight bearing in mind they have favoured slim/skinny contestants for this year's lives (apart from Honey G).

If she doesn't find a better avenue by then, and if she fits what the producers think will be most profitable/viewer sustaining, sure.She might make a great storyline, and she can sing.

Most of what I have posted in this thread is NOT conjecture, it is based on first and second and occasionally third hand knowledge and experience.

I cannot help but wonder if a couple of posters here also have first or second hand knowledge, because they casually mention things most viewers wouldn't know or be overly interested in (example: The Voice's spending budget/label ability compared to X Factor's), yet they keep trying to lead the thread back toward things that are not factual, such as Cowell's decisions and why he made them .

Those posters are either very interested or work for the show and are deliberately trying to draw attention away from factual posts and back toward the usual conjecture that leads in a circle.

I was just a little curious as to how someone would know some yet be so *seemingly* misguided about other things. It isn't relevant to this discussion either way, though, and I am not challenging, so no need to defend.

If the former, I am impressed with your knowledge

If the latter, and deliberately trying to lead people back toward the desired speculation and away from the men behind the curtain,nice try

Yeah. The challenge is that X-Factor can mess with you via editing and The Voice basically doesn't seem to produce anything and doesn't really support groups. Maybe it's as much of a boost to your career if you're a soloist that is unlikely to win? I don't know.

I think there must be space for a new kind of show that is better for the acts to emerge. They'd scoop all the best talent after a few seasons. You'd still have to have auditions, because space is always limited, but after that... I was thinking something like a behind the scenes show where a dozen promising acts went through various aspects of being in the music industry, from live performances to producing a single to radio interviews to even things like photoshoots and red carpet appearances.

There would be no eliminations but audience members could vote for cash prizes to be won at the end, with weekly rankings announced. Thus the audience would be engaged without the show needing to screw over everyone. The label would sign whoever they wanted at the end, the artists would walk away feeling better about the whole thing.

Maybe someday something like this will happen, when XF and The Voice are weakening. Perhaps as a web series. I don't know, just throwing it out there.

^^ There are multiple examples of the latter on here. People repeatedly claiming Caitlyn forgot the lyrics (even before the JH aired on TV) and that she has issues outside of the show. All designed to support the decision to not put her through.

If you google X Factor forum digitalspy is top of the results which means people working for the show could easily infiltrate these threads and fill them with lies and propaganda.

It would make my day if Panorama did an expose about the show confirming what many of us on here already know or suspect.

I thought it was actually somewhat less obvious this year up until judges' houses decisions. Airtime and slots were generally much fairer than other seasons where the first episode pimp slot was always the chosen one and the cut judges' houses auditions were always the rejects.

I don't understand why they wrecked the field this much. People are talking and surely they could have saved Matt and 5AM to a credible finish regardless.

Air time was not fair (practically non existent) for a few of the best artists. The sound was ridiculous for more than a few, and...I will stop there. I understand why they wrecked the field so much, but only because I have seen what goes on from other angles. I could not agree more that they did not need to resort to such tactics.

i would be amazed if the producers didn't use a forum like this a ready made focus group to get feedback on aspects of the show, they must do market research and they can get it here for free

Yes, there are people lurking (hi! ) I would bet, as they do have people constantly monitering forums(If you ever hear new phrases creep into judge's comments and feedback that you remember reading here recently before, you are not mistaken.)

I have said more here than I ever have, and have been wanting to for years . Honestly, I am just fed up, disgusted, and wanting to share information.

LOL Cowell's biggest breaks have not been because of him but in spite of him. Little Mix have been brilliant for Syco.

Just to clear something up about Cowell and XF - Cowell controls Syco that owns XF, he's the workaholic executive producer and makes all final decisions (even though he sometimes pretends not to). Only ITV and God are above him but they've never interfered yet.

Agreed.

Little Mix was like manor from heaven and he is very fortunate to have them on his books. He wasn't even on the panel when they won. He has messed up so many XF winners by picking the wrong genre or not giving them the right kind or quantity of marketing. In many cases he was also protecting his existing artists position in the market by simply not backing previous winners. People then assume they flopped but it in many cases is was down to lack of marketing support and poor decision making.

The overall goal of the show is not to find the next big thing. The goal is to make money and maximise ratings. Creating storylines, manipulation and editing etc. helps them achieve this. Finding the next big thing is really a false objective and only happens in exceptional circumstances when the stars are aligned i.e. exceptional talent, demand, gap in the market etc

The X Factor is a reality tv show now - not a singing competition. Simon is looking for ratings.

throw in a 3 month long prime time marketing campaign for SYCO acts as well

Well if they want an improvement in the ratings then they are going the wrong way about it this year as they are dwindling rather than going up.

Well they seem to have had their biggest reaction to judges houses since probably gamu back in 2010, so I imagine there happy to go down the controversy route, as a result it may give a slight increase in ratings this weekend for people to see what's going on, realise how shocking the line up is then switch off for good causing I imagine a decline throughout the weeks.

I've got the feeling they've put some of these random people in so they can be easily dispensed at the hands of the joke acts in the lives.

I'm going to be intrigued to see how there going to get the 2 joke acts through the 1st 3 or 4 weeks to get them on tour.

All being well they should be in the bottom two tomorrow so at least one will be gone.

I'd like to think it would be that straight forward but I don't think it will be, I think one of them Def will be but probably with one of the forgettable overs and we will be left with another Rylan/carolyn style deadlock drama

Other than their family and friends who would want to waste money on voting for them? No one with any sense anyway.

The producers will be trawling through their phone books getting everyone to use all their votes on them

You are probably not far wrong.

Im not sure about all of this because higher viewing figures don't translate into money for Cowell as he has already confirmed the new 3 year deal. He will probably get some kick back from votes, but I still think that it is only the young people that vote regardless of viewing figures plus I think they offer free votes now, so as per my original post at the start of this thread, as Cowell is all about the money, how does higher viewing figures help him, he doesn't get the ad revenue, ITV do. He makes the money out of the winning artist selling records if he finds a One Direction or Olly Murs and leaving himself with one or two potentials out of 12 (Emily and Matt) with one of them bound to get knocked out in a shock exit when one of them is pitted against Honey G and Louis picks Honey G, so the odds of having a big selling artist is quite small odds. Plus if it is Matt, how is he going to get over the fact that most of the male winners have flopped - good loooking or not.

So back to my original question - what is Simons plan by having so many shite acts this year.

Because this years show is more about his already signed act The Brooks Way getting exposure.

I hope you're not thinking that being with Multimedia Entertainments Group or having Sinnita introduce them to Cowell means they are signed. And having Louis say they are "weak" is not good exposure.

If they are signed then show it with some link.

There is no way Brooks Way is going to win, especially with Louis as their mentor.

he doesn't care who wins as long as he can get 3 months prime time exposure for free for the act he wants

they just need to get to the last 4 or 5

louis being their mentor is also irrelevant as he has zero to do with song choices or staging, thats just an act for the purposes of the format