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The X Factor and Strictly

Split from New look BBC One - Jan 2017 (September 2017)

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:-(
A former member
The best bit of it was that the 6 poor girls were flown to Dublin, for about 5 minutes, purely to crowbar these in. There was literally no reason for them to be there - they were going to San Francisco.
WL
W1LL
Just put on the X Factor for the first time in a while and, good grief, I thought I was watching parody of American product placement. Countless camera angles to include the Turkish Airlines logo, as well as the Air Lingus logo at every possibility.

I suppose that was fair enough until when one of the groups arrived at their destination they were greeted with a random man brandishing a phone with a huge 'Three' logo plastered over it proudly exclaiming "Here's a phone from Three to call Sharon with". It was the most ham-fisted attempt at product placement I have ever seen.


I'd love to see that for myself but I don't think I could stomach scrubbing through two hours of it.

The whole segment involving flying out to the judges houses really was vomit inducing. First came a contestant being told he had got a place on the show after another pulled out, so cue the conveniently placed camera crew inside his house able to film his reaction to being told, and his tragic attempt to act surprised about it. Then came the inane speculation and confusion about where the boys group were going, despite being stood in the Turkish Airlines check-in area and presumably being told exactly where to stand to get the peak amount of Turkish Airlines logo in shot. After the shock of finding out they were going to Istanbul, cue one of the contestants asking where Istanbul is, once again stood in the Turkish Airlines check-in area. Next they flew the girls out to Dublin, solely for maximum Air Lingus promotion and the sake of making a cheesy joke about being sent to rainy old Ireland when they were actually being sent to San Francisco. Then to top it all off, came the utterly cringeworthy 'Three' phone incident. Rant over!
LL
Larry the Loafer
And yet some people IRL don't understand why I vehemently loathe that show.
:-(
A former member
http://www.itv.com/terms/votes-the-x-factor/the-x-factor-voting-terms-2017

Confirmed on here a number of changes to the live shows starting next weekend. As predicted, 2 categories perform Saturday night and 2 Sunday night. The act(s) with the lowest votes each night will be eliminated (therefore presumably no sing-off). Also what sounds like a vote for act of the week.

The end of tonight’s shot hinted at a much-needed graphical refresh (but they’ve led us to think that before and then the same old graphics pop up). Presumably a new set though next week given they’ve moved studios.
BR
Brekkie
Barely watched this year but skipped through the Judges Houses shows. We may (quite rightly) mock the product placement but fair play to them they are now probably getting the most expensive stage of the competition, something which may have been vulnerable to being axed in the renegotiated contract, pretty much paid for by sponsors.

Definately better with 16 acts splitting them across two shows - guess they'll lose an act per category next week then one per night after then, though I think they could merge them into one show from Week 3 (Top 10) rather than leaving it to Week 5. That in theory would mean the finalists only do one less performance than in a standard run of 10 weeks of live shows, so still the chance for that progression, just nowhere near as dragged out.
JA
jay Founding member
Just put on the X Factor for the first time in a while and, good grief, I thought I was watching parody of American product placement. Countless camera angles to include the Turkish Airlines logo, as well as the Air Lingus logo at every possibility.

I suppose that was fair enough until when one of the groups arrived at their destination they were greeted with a random man brandishing a phone with a huge 'Three' logo plastered over it proudly exclaiming "Here's a phone from Three to call Sharon with". It was the most ham-fisted attempt at product placement I have ever seen.


I'd love to see that for myself but I don't think I could stomach scrubbing through two hours of it.

The whole segment involving flying out to the judges houses really was vomit inducing. First came a contestant being told he had got a place on the show after another pulled out, so cue the conveniently placed camera crew inside his house able to film his reaction to being told, and his tragic attempt to act surprised about it. Then came the inane speculation and confusion about where the boys group were going, despite being stood in the Turkish Airlines check-in area and presumably being told exactly where to stand to get the peak amount of Turkish Airlines logo in shot. After the shock of finding out they were going to Istanbul, cue one of the contestants asking where Istanbul is, once again stood in the Turkish Airlines check-in area. Next they flew the girls out to Dublin, solely for maximum Air Lingus promotion and the sake of making a cheesy joke about being sent to rainy old Ireland when they were actually being sent to San Francisco. Then to top it all off, came the utterly cringeworthy 'Three' phone incident. Rant over!

The camera crew would have said they were there to film pick-up shots for editing, as they have done in previous years when this happens. Agree about the product placement though - the Three phone was laughable.
JB
JasonB
Just put on the X Factor for the first time in a while and, good grief, I thought I was watching parody of American product placement. Countless camera angles to include the Turkish Airlines logo, as well as the Air Lingus logo at every possibility.

I suppose that was fair enough until when one of the groups arrived at their destination they were greeted with a random man brandishing a phone with a huge 'Three' logo plastered over it proudly exclaiming "Here's a phone from Three to call Sharon with". It was the most ham-fisted attempt at product placement I have ever seen.


I'd love to see that for myself but I don't think I could stomach scrubbing through two hours of it.


I can barely stomach any of the X Factor these days. I can just about tolerate Strictly though.
PF
PFML84
I don't watch either of them but for one reason or another I ended up watching both on Saturday. Strictly was light, fun, upbeat and enjoyable. Perfect Saturday night entertainment. The X Factor in comparison was packed with so much fake drama, adverts, egos and product placement I struggled to get through it. I'm not surprised viewing figures for it are in the toilet, it is an awful programme. Fair enough if you like it but its really not for me. If I had to watch either of them again I would pick Strictly any day of the week. It'll take a while to get over that toe curling product placement for the mobile phone and the waste of money flying the contestants to Dublin for a joke at their expense.
GO
gottago
It'll take a while to get over that toe curling product placement for the mobile phone and the waste of money flying the contestants to Dublin for a joke at their expense.

A waste of money? It was clearly paid for by Aer Lingus, did you not notice the mass of their logos slapped on everything and the viewer competition?! And it's hardly unusual to fly to another city to make a connection on a long haul flight.

As Brekkie said earlier Judge's Houses are an expensive two episodes and with fewer viewers and higher salaries for the judges they probably wouldn't be able to do half of it without all the product placement.
JO
Johnr
I believe if you fly through Dublin you can pre clear US Customs / Immigration to avoid a very long queue at the other end too! Which I'm sure is useful with all the contestants and crew flying out.

It seems odd that they've axed the sing off this year, on one hand it was totally pointless in recent years as more often than nit the judges sent things to deadlock anyway but on the other hand it was a point of the show that would generate headlines for the show with the bickering between the judges and the SHOCK decisions...
HC
Hatton Cross
Johnr posted:
I believe if you fly through Dublin you can pre clear US Customs / Immigration to avoid a very long queue at the other end too! Which I'm sure is useful with all the contestants and crew flying out.

Correct - you can clear US immigration and get the ESTA stamped at Dublin / Shannon airports. Most useful it is to.

Think customs still has to be done at the USA side.
DV
dvboy
Johnr posted:
I believe if you fly through Dublin you can pre clear US Customs / Immigration to avoid a very long queue at the other end too! Which I'm sure is useful with all the contestants and crew flying out.

Correct - you can clear US immigration and get the ESTA stamped at Dublin / Shannon airports.


It would have been on a visa surely as it is for work not visiting. In any case they would have had to arrange this in advance so the surprise of going to the US is obviously a fabrication.

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