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Points: 82
Votes: 7

4th Impact – or 4th Pimpact as nobody really calls them but me – gave one of the stand-out performances of this year’s X Factor auditions. Originally known as 4th Power until they were forced to change by a Brighton-based music charit-no, hang on, that was Little Mix. Let’s just say that’s the way God made them. Anyway, 4th Pimpact were one of the favourites to win ever since that very first audition, and continued to knock it out of the park, even when one of their members was literally knocked out on the floor, having fainted on live TV. More than once. Not even accusations of fixing (due to their existing record contract, which would explain why they were much, much better than all of the competition put together) could stop these girls. 2015 was the year of the 4th Pimpact and you’d better have got used to it, baby. It’s weird trying to write this in the past tense, isn’t it? What was I talking about again? Yes, that’s it, 4th Impact were winning. And then… they didn’t? They left in the quarter-finals, which because of the show’s reduced timespan this year was probably week 2. They didn’t win and that was that. You know who won if you read her write-up or weren’t living under a rock for the last few months. No, wait, now that the X Factor’s relevance is fast fading I can’t actually use that excuse. Maybe you don’t know who won The X Factor. And maybe you never will. Maybe that’s a good thing. I don’t really like The X Factor. I don’t know if you can tell. I’m very tired. 4th Pimpact, ladies and gentlemen!

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#=25



Points: 82
Votes: 7

Do correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Shirin – one of the only contestants in this ranking to be on the list for two editions of the same show – is largely here for her appearance on Worlds Apart. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure she was definitely preferable to a number of others on Cambodia, but it was in the former that she really shined. She wound all of her tribemates up the wrong way (with pretty trivial, but too good not to be intentional, surely) and wound up more or less hated by all of her tribemates. So much so that… none of them voted her out? Yes, somehow she stayed long enough as to finish in 8th place, by which time she’d become a fan favourite – as if she wouldn’t be after that brief recap – and people she feuded with (i.e. Will) weren’t. So, along comes the chance for America to vote for its own Second Chance cast, and lo and behold, they pick Shirin. One down, Cambodia to go. Spoilers: his one’s a bit briefer than her first go, I’ll be honest. Having set herself up for success by managing to help vote Vytas out in episode one, things took a turn for the not-so-good and she didn’t stick up for Abi-Maria when she saw she was in a worse position than her (i.e. she was being ostracized), leading to her rather swift elimination. Still… we’ve always got Worlds Apart, right?