With the guest line-up for the final being announced it serves as yet another example that Simon cares more about promoting his own artists and ramming them down our throats AGAIN as opposed to trying to create an exciting final with guest stars.

The guest stars this year have included Louisa, Little Mix, James and Olly plus a Nicole performance on Disco Week. Clean Bandit performed due to the Louisa connection basically and Nathan Sykes performed so Capital FM would play the Syco acts.

Normally that wouldn't be too bad because we still had Craig David, Alicia Keys and other decent names but when you consider the fact that we had Fleur and Alesha Dixon at Judges Houses, plus Mel B and then the fact that we're going to have to see Little Mix, Louisa and Nicole perform AGAIN this weekend and it's just a bit obvious and predictable.

Fifth Harmony, Little Mix, One Direction and Girls Aloud also got their songs performed twice, Impossible was performed by Sam, Ghost and When You Believe performed by 4 of Diamonds, Beneath Your Beautiful performed by 5AM and then there's been a constant use of X-Factor/Syco related music played in VT's and in the background during the audition process, too.

They're obviously pushing these songs for the extra sales but I wonder if it's worth it. At the most they must get a few hundred extra sales anytime they're used or performed but surely picking better songs and having more variety would make the show better and bring in more viewers which is more important?

The fact Simon made Gifty sing that shitty Fifth Harmony song on Halloween week just says it all. He chose to promote a year old, poorly recieved song by his group which resulted in a weak performance as predicted. The song didn't benefit and neither did Gifty, so what's the point?

It makes sense for the show to promote it's alums.

I do think that they could be more careful when it comes to what they give the current acts to sing.

"I'm in Love With a Monster" by Fifth Harmony was from movie Hotel Transylvania 2, Simon probably picked it because he had no better ideas.

Nothing wrong with having former contestants on the show, but I wish it wasn't limited to those who are signed to and in favour with Syco. They could have had Alexandra Burke on this year and perform a song from The Bodyguard or Sister Act and Leona do one from Cats like she did on Dancing with the Stars. Those are the examples that come to mind, but I am sure there are more.

I think Jedward 100% deserved to come back and perform, up and till and around Lipstick/Bad Behaviour they had made a huge success of themselves. They wern't invited back because they did it all with Universal and not Syco.

I think it's great to celebrate the XF acts who have done well, something The Voice doesn't do and look at the competition. XF performances for all artists really do get Q4 rolling so the power is important. What i would say is do we have to have 1D, olly, Little mix etc EVERY year but also can we have other XF acts too like Cher Lloyd should have been allowed to promote her 2nd album on the show, Rebecca Ferguson most recent album etc.

Nial wasn't invited back for This Town either...just because he's not with Sony.

Interesting what you said about Nathan Sykes and The Wanted, they were on here FAR too much i mean Nathan's solo career doesn't even have any buzzz so why was he allowed to perform twice, the same with the Wanted...obviously some arrangement with modest management and Capital? I can see your point though...

It's good business, and a lot less effort booking in his own acts than negotiating with external parties for performances. Probably saves him a pretty penny, too.

It makes total sense parading his own roster in front of huge audiences whenever there's a chance to do that.

No real issue with them performing on the results shows, though it's not very exciting to see the same faces popping up every single year. It makes sense, they probably are contracted to do it (low cost) and can only help sales.

Simon's promotion of Fifth Harmony and the ubiquitous Sax in song choices, VTs etc. is borderline embarrassing though.

Well it is Cowell's show. He's obviously going to take the chance to promote artists that are signed to his label. I don't see anything wrong with that at all.

In some cases it helps both the show and the artist, I remember someone tracked the ratings from when Little Mix were on debuting their song on the show and there was a noticeable spike during their performance. Not to mention they went to nab the #1 that week with only 4 days of sales, becoming the first act to do so in the UK since We Found Love, so it clearly does have its functions.

The performance slots are obviously there to benefit the show either financially when contestants pay to perform or to benefit the own franchise by getting their artists out there, so to me it's only logical they do it.

Copped from ATRL

X Factor ratings Oct. 16:

20:00 | 5.68m
20:15 | 5.75m
20:25 | 5.91m
20:30 | 7.31m
20:35 | 7.59m - Little Mix performance
20:40 | 6.47m

Even as a huge LM fan, I found forcing the contestants to choose Syco songs was a bit much. Maybe its promotion but also not having to pay royalties to anyone but themselves. The performance slots supposedly help artist and show so I understand.

The way he used Gifty just to promote the dismal FH was shocking.

Oh yeah I agree that was embarrassing and there were FAR better choices for Gifty to sing, none of those two highlighted her potential.

The show really only exists to find acts for SYCO. How many artists on the label roster haven't come from a Cowell show? Maybe 1 or 2.

Once signed, they need guaranteed promotional spots. It's like a self-sustaining ecosystem!

Its more like a saltwater fish tank. If the balance isnt just so, everything goes belly up.

Whether it's good business for him or not isn't the real issue what exactly the show is meant to be?

He's being paid (like any other production company) to make an entertainment show for ITV, where the focus really should be about booking who would most increase ratings and revenue.

Yet he is using the show as an advertising platform for his artists and always has, which in some cases, has had a negative affect on the quality of the show.

On the BBC he would never be allowed to do it. So really it's ITV's fault for letting him do it all these years.

Often, though, I'd assume viewers would be interested in seeing previous contestants return to the show seeing as they may have voted for them in previous years.

I think in the case of previous contestants, yes, but if he is acting as a responsible executive producer IMO the decision as to who should be made on who the audience would like to see or who would be most appropriate for the segment rather than being selected on the basis of whether they are still Syco or associated artists or not which seems to be the case.

A large amount of the alumni are "forgotten".

Unfortunately the show has got too political behind-the-scenes and obviously everyone has become aware that the music contracts offered to contestants are allegedly quite exploitative in Syco's favour. So it's all quite impractical by now with lots of bitter people.

Again it's all ITV's fault IMO, and from the first series it should have been clear that Syco would just act as the production company only, not the record company. It's all one big conflict of interest. But then again one big format point in these shows is that the winner is "signed" so how else do you do that.