[Jack_]

Originally Posted by Marsh.

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.

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.