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X-Factor, never shy about ramping up the sob stories, has turned into a right blubber-fest. It used to be just mildly uncomfortable (or in my case downright annoying) to see the mostly young wannabes well up and then try to stop the tears in that very silly American way they have which is to wipe their eyes with one finger which isn't really wiping their eyes at all.
Last weekend's shows were the worst yet. It should have been sponsored by Kleenex. Watching 18 and 19 year olds sobbing about how much they have wanted this, all of their lives, as if they actually have had time to do some living, is really off-putting. I find myself shouting at the screen. Cop on! Get over yourself! If the worst thing that ever happens in your life is that you don't make it onto the live shows on X-Factor consider yourself blessed!
It seems to me that if these youngsters truly want a singing career they'd stick with it like so many successful singers have had to do. Many of the young contestants have genuine talent. Never mind trying to take a shortcut to a singing career by winning X-factor, which in any case is no guarantee of future success, as previous winners have, alas, all too clearly shown.
But then again I suspect that, at least in the case of some of the young female contestants, its more to do with wanting to become a celebrity than be a singing sensation.
The exploitative nature of the show is hard to stomach. I remember a young contestant last year speaking movingly about wanting to win for her young daughter, to get out of the London tower block and dead end life she had.
I couldn't help wondering afterwards, when she was eliminated, how she felt returning home to that life in that tower block. It had to have been a hundred times harder going back after laying out how she felt about her life in such a public way.
I don't know if I've more sympathy for the young ones or the older contestants who see X-Factor as a desperate, last-ditch attempt to achieve the dream that has proved so elusive.
I've no sympathy for the deluded fools who put themselves forward for public humiliation in the early stages of each years shows though. They're fair game, I think. It's contestants like the painfully shy Jahmene Douglas last year I feel sorry for. His background was mined by the show's producers to evoke sympathy.
The tabloids then took that ball and ran with it, elaborating on the domestic violence his family was subjected to from their father. They did the same with James Arthur, last year's eventual winner, honing in on the fact that he was homeless for a time.
This year I'm already fearful for shy 19-year-old Abi Alton, who made it through on Sunday night to the live shows but who seems to me like an innocent abroad. She did her fair share of weeping on Sunday night
As for the ones who were sent home, all I could think of was all the tragedies that have been averted by their departure. Maybe they'll take comfort in the fact that their grannies are now safe for another while, they won't lose their home/have a parent in jail/have parents separating/siblings die or any of the other tragedies that seem to pop up and are used to ratchet up the sympathy quotient as the weeks go by.
I did manage some sympathy this week for young Irish contestant Melanie McCabe whose fourth attempt it was to get through. She was reported as saying this week that she'd been encouraged to share the sob story of how her family are facing losing their house to elicit sympathy. She claims she was also encouraged to audition this year by the show producers who told her it'd be 'her year.'
The changed system this year that saw contestants in each category deemed worthy by judges to take one of six chairs to go through to bootcamp only for them to have to then stress about losing them to better subsequent contestants was needlessly cruel, I thought.
I stopped watching X-Factor for a few years and only went back to it last year. If Sunday night's show is anything to go by, I think I'll be bowing out of it again. Even if they banned crying there's too much about it that makes me uncomfortable to stick with it.
It should be renamed the X-cruciating Factor.
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