:kiss:

Wait one per category is leaving each week :skull: I thought it was just the two with the lowest votes each week is gone

From what I understood, if it's two leaving a week (one Saturday and one Sunday), it's whoever has the least votes each night. If it's four in a week (which will have to happen at least once), so two each night - then it'll be one from each category, or else a judge could conceivably lose two acts in one night.

Which is all kinds of unfair. If there's two crap acts in your category, they deserve to go. This is part of the reason why The Voice is so ****, because they insist[ed] (idk if they still do) on reducing the teams at an equal rate :shrug: the lives are the worst part of that show and they're literally copying their format...tragic.

I don't see why it matters, the point of the show is to dwindle the numbers to one winner.

Does it really matter if, due to some technicality, a rubbish act in one category last 2 weeks longer than an ok act from another category? At the end of the day there is only one winner that will, debatably, be the "best" and most popular?

Do people pay that much attention to rankings apart from 3rd, 2nd and 1st?

It matters in terms of creating an entertaining and engaging live show format, IMO. There were problems with the lives, absolutely, but the thing that makes X Factor better than The Voice is that you can get to know the acts over ten weeks and become invested in their journeys. 2015 proved that you can't over a shorter length of time, it was rushed, flat, and beyond predictable. This is even worse, how can acts develop when they're culling like four people in one week? It's tragic. Plus, the sing-off is without question the highlight of the weekend, if only for Louis' classic Deadlock dramas (the biggest loss tbh </3)

In terms of what else you said, under this format it is conceivable that one of the favourites could easily be lost in the one-act-from-each-category-leaves week if they have a bad night. Let's say that Grace or Holly has a bad performance and the other girls shine, meanwhile the fodder in the Boys category continue to underperform and would in a regular series be shoe-ins to leave in week 4. The former could end up being eliminated just because of a stupid arbitrary rule about keeping the categories at equal numbers, while the latter get to float on through just because :shrug: it's completely unfair.

I was referring more to the second part, about culling the categories equally, as they do at every prior stage of the competition. Culling them quickly so it's over in a shorter time does allow less time for progression and getting familiar with the acts and also for building up fanbases in time for finale week when it's the last head to head.

But, in terms of a girl like Grace getting booted out due to a bad week whilst a mediocre boy floats through happens regardless every single year. Heck, how many times have the judges wilfully made that exact decision during the sing-off/deadlock?

When it comes to that, the problem lies in talentless dreck making it to the live shows at all. The show's standards when it comes to talent needs to improve, no matter the process of eliminating them in the live shows.

However, I still maintain 12th place or 8th place, they're elimination fodder for the only places anyone cares about - 3rd, 2nd and 1st. The rest of them are just "those people eliminated throughout the lives." The order in which that happens is inconsequential IMO.

Im glad this didnt happen last year because Saara would have not made final </3

I see the point you're making (and I definitely agree re. putting fodder through to the lives in the first place, though I think this is the best bunch of finalists for a while) but my use of Grace and Holly as examples was less about them being culled over dull boys a la any other year, and more just because they're the favourites, you could swap them for whoever you like really - the same point would still apply. You could lose the favourites to fodder in any category, just because of a rule whereby someone from each category must leave. What if the three favourites were in one category? It's nonsense.

My main issue with this though lies in not being able to become invested in the acts over a lengthy period of time. The live shows are my absolute favourite part of X Factor and their insistence on reducing them for the second time in three years, and this time axing my actual favourite part (the sing-off), is so frustrating. They got almost everything right last year and this series was going so well, it's such a shame.

In regards to "what if three favourites were in one Catagory" and the whole one leaves from each Catagory thing

Every single one of the girls is ahead of every single one of the boys in the betting odds (and almost overs too) in the odds
So say week 1 they done 4 eliminations - we could be loosing Rai-Elle who may get like the 5th most votes and keep 2 boys who got like 8/9th most votes and thus isn't a vey unlikely scenario

Regardless of wether you like less weeks or not In live tbis is clearly an unfair format that takes away from what made the X factor more interesting

I COMPLETELY agree with everything you’ve said. Judges Houses ruined last series (for the best part) and that was all they had to correct this year. And they technically did! The final 12 are the best in a while AND they’re even making the public happier by giving us 4 acts we choose ourselves. Now put this on a normal 10 week format and it would be the best live shows since 2012. Instead we’re getting an absolute car crash of a mess...

Acts like Alexandra, Rebecca Ferguson, James, Little Mix, Fleur East and, most notably, Saara were not winners or even near that at the beginning of their own live shows yet because of the format they managed to grow and make the final and some of them did manage to win. None of them would’ve won on a format like this.

Louisa was a shoe in for the win in 2015, and because there were so little shows, it was all so predictable. We didn’t really get to know the acts as well as usual (which is partly why I believe she hasn’t been that successful since)

Then all three of those aren't going to win anyway. That's my point.

It's all about one winner, so whether Favourite A is knocked out by Favourite B in the final 2 or a few weeks beforehand is neither here nor there. :laugh:

And, yes, I see the argument that a final with both of those favourites in it would be better than one of them versus a floater who slipped through in a fairly crappy category, that's where my point about the overall lack of quality control across the whole show crops up.

This. It’s going to happen, and it’s going to be horrible. If the 4 girls are best then the 4 girls deserve to stay the longest.

It’s also annoying that they’ll put specific categories together to try and get the acts they want furthest. I’ll put money on the groups & girls being on separate nights

Yeah I agree. I hated s1 of the voice for this reason.

Think 2011. Janet was the winner, so you could’ve just assumed by week 6 Janet will win - what’s the difference in 6 or 10 shows?
But Little Mix happened. They only happened because of the 10 weeks... nobody saw that happening at the start of the shows. The whole problem with this new format is unfair eliminations with no time for acts to grow. Not about one clear winner, or they may as well just crown the winner on week one going by what you’re saying

That's not my point though.

That's the only criticism I agree with, the length. The new format doesn't allow enough time for acts to progress and build up fanbases.

The order in which the acts leave the competition, IMO, is the least of its problems.

but the order is affected by the time :laugh:

If they do double eliminations week one and then singles on week 2, there will have been 6 eliminations this year while the acts will have only performed twice. Let them all perform 6 times before eliminating them and the order could be completely different....

Why would they purposely want to push the worst acts furthest?

If the producers favourites are a group and a girl, they won’t put them on the same night because that’ll mean one has to go. So they’ll put them separate in the hope that an over and boy will go instead

Yes, however if they eliminated one from each category on alternating weeks then the length of the live shows would remain the same AND they would reduce the categories at the same rate.

Culling them quickly and regularly is the issue, not the eliminating them category by category. That's exactly how they narrow down the 1000s of applicants down to the live show cast as it is anyway.

And if we have a case of a talentless no hoper floating through to the top 5 then they should've thought about that at Bootcamp when putting that floater into their final selections.

Nobody at this stage of the competition should be bad. Everybody will like different acts dependent on taste and preference, but they should all be good.

I hate that there is no sing off, some of my favourite XF moments have been from sing offs

Ruth singing Purple Rain and Knocking on Heavens Door :lovedup:

Why would one HAVE to go? Presumably, the rest of their categories are performing too? And if they would easily survive elimination against the other acts in their category then they're going to fly through the first stages regardless?

Because sometimes the producers don’t want to let acts go even though they’re likely to go :laugh:

It’s like how they gave Honey G the pimp slot on live shows to boost her chances of survival.

That's a completely different debate IMO.

I can see the argument about the order in which acts perform and who sticks out in audiences memory when the vote opens. BUT when it comes to the joke acts, if they're getting voted through week after week it's going to happen regardless of slot. :laugh: IMO.

But it won’t happen if they put the overs on the same night as the boys knowing the boys will get more votes while the groups might not have.... ;)

But if one boy and one group is going then the least popular boy and least popular group is going anyway regardless of the others?

The competition will be within their own categories, rather than outside, until the final 4.

Would whoever is deemed least popular in each category really change if you swapped out which category they were grouped with?

To illustrate, if all the boys are more popular than all the groups so the overall voting is...
1. Boy 1
2. Boy 2
3. Boy 3
4. Boy 4
5. Group 1
6. Group 2
7. Group 3
8. Group 4

Then Boy 4 and Group 4 are both leaving that night.
If you then paired those categories with another category where the voting is more mixed so you get results like...

1. Boy 1
2. Girl 1
3. Boy 2
4. Boy 3
5. Girl 2
6. Girl 3
7. Girl 4
8. Boy 4

Then "Boy 4" has a difference of 4 places, BUT he's eliminated anyway because he remains the least popular of his category?

Of course if one is going from each category then you’re right, but that’s only going to happen once. Every other week, 2 categories will perform and one with the fewest overall votes will go. So what I said applies here

Well in that case, that's simply an unfair system, which is common for this show for years.

It's like in Big Brother when a housemate is evicted one week after being majority nominated by the whole house but then, in an unfair and unannounced change of rules, someone is nominated and evicted from just one nomination the following week. That makes a mockery of the viewers and the competition by making it unbalanced.

However, the idea of simply culling the categories at an equal rate isn't necessarily a bad one. It's the limited time to get to know them and the inconsistent voting that spoils it.

But then you could make the argument that even if one act would've survived against another category, the fact they came bottom of the 8 acts that performed that night shows they're far from deserving of remaining really anyway. :fan:

The limited time spoils it I agree, but the change up of one week one person will be eliminated from all acts in just two categories, to one act from just one category to eventually one act form all categories is massively flawed

Definitely. And the kind of inconsistent brainfart that caused me to abandon this show a while ago. :laugh:

It’s just seriously disappointing that we finally have a good bunch of finalists and our own chosen wildcards...... and they **** all over it

Go back to the Popstars documentary format I say. :laugh:

Agree with this completely, the sing-off was starting to get pretty pointless so I don't see it getting axed as too much of an issue. The format change was necessary - first time the show has interested me in a while.

mess at this format!

They were smart enough to axe this part

Even though it seems they don't care about the future of the show, they've just produced one of the best adverts the show's ever done

Awful Jono.

I'm Tracey getting the inevitable makeover

Most of the time the sing off wasnt used fairly the only right decisions they made last year were Saara and 5AM

Ugh Matt is squinting his eyes here too, I thought he had hayfever or sumin before