[Crimson Dynamo]

Written by Deborah Orr yesterday

I reckon she is spot on?

"Manufactured controversy is undeniably popular. What else can explain The X Factor? All that rehearsing, all that trying, all that dreaming, all that scheming, all that performing, all that spinning, all that judging, all that voting – you'd think the variables were too great for any control at all to be exerted.

Yet week after week, no tears are shed for the losers, who, by an almost eerie general consensus, are little-mourned. When will viewers start feeling sad to see people go?

Not for weeks, probably, because there's still Katie, Paije, Treyc, Wagner and Mary to weed out, in no particular order, before the more sorrowful goodbyes, to Aiden and Rebecca, start coming. Then there's the ding-dong between Cher, Matt and One Direction.

The tension isn't mounting. But I'm still hooked. Perhaps it's the certain knowledge that it definitely, profoundly, doesn't matter in the least, that is the key to the appeal of the whole, tacky, tawdry, compulsive extravaganza."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-rad...h-orr-x-factor