The X Factor 2018

Pop Idol was being rested when they announced The X Factor. I think what hurt Pop Idol for its last series was the gap between series because they had Popstars the Rivals in late 2002,I think it’s run longer had that not happened.

This is probably my imagination but didn’t ITV want to do a third Popstars series?

Yes, it was going to be Popstars: Boy Meets Girl to create a duo, presumably in the hope they'd snog on camera and have blazing rows and so on. But that never happened. At the time, it felt like they'd just alternate between Popstars, Pop Idol and X Factor, but clearly they wanted Cowell on all the time and he'd only do X Factor, so that ended the other two. A bit of a shame, cos I liked Pop Idol and X Factor, with its contrived format, seemed a real step down.

Course, Popstars: The Rivals was nothing like the original Popstars, which was all pre-recorded on location, The Rivals just followed the Pop Idol template to the letter, the judges even sat on the same place on the set.

I've said this before but one thing I really liked about Popstars and Pop Idol was that they seemed really honest and were well up for discussing the mechanics of the show, so on the original Popstars nobody turned up to the auditions in Belfast and they admitted as such. And then on Pop Idol I there was all that discussion about Rik Waller being ill and potentially getting a bye, and they actually discussed this on air and invited the audience to ask the judges questions, so it felt like a show that was on the viewer's side and would happily reveal all this stuff to us. A real shame when X Factor started hyping everything up and boasting about ratings.

This comes up in Gary Barlow's new book. He claims that a producer told the judges without evidence that Misha B was a bully, prompting those comments. Barlow claims that he was advised not to join in and he made a point of saying that he would only judge what was in front of him, not rumours that he had heard.

By nearly all accounts (and I worked with nearly every act from that series), it was based on a complaint from Kitty Brucknell.
However it was allegedly Brucknell that was an absolute nightmare to work with. I heard of further clashes on the X Factor Tour which followed that series.

Seeing that again has reminded me of this classic

Talking of Popstars, I suspect not many people remember its soap-themed spin-off - which featured Yvon Grace of Crossroads 2003 infamy:



Somewhat ironic that the winners only lasted nine months in the 'Dale before their contracts failed to be renewed - whereas one of the members of Hear'Say has now been in Corrie for twelve years and is arguably better known for that than for her singing career.

I seem to remember the cast and crew at Emmerdale not being too happy with it.

I much preferred HTV's "Presenters" hosted by Gabby Logan, which saw the search for a new face of HTV in 2002. Jaci Stephen was one of the judges. The live final was in Studio 1 at Culverhouse Cross, possibly the last time HTV produced anything glitzy from that studio which had once shown so much promise.

Did the winner stick around?

An X Factor for X Factor judges would probably be more interesting than the show itself.

I recall the soapstars family were quite sidelined on Emmerdale mostly having their own storylines tucked away at the ‘Holiday Village’.

I think they left at different times and only the ‘mum’ stayed the distance and interacted a lot with the rest of the village towards the end

Yes, Becky Wicks hosted quite a few shows in the early 00s, most notably Karaoke Queen. There was a bit of controversy as she already worked in local radio, rather than being a 'proper' member of the public.

The runner up John Parton, a self-styled Hughie Green for the noughties, got his own series too a variety show called "Classy Acts":

Thanks - yes that’s what I meant.

On a totally different note I was just reminded of the BBC Gaby Roslin vehicle Whatever You Want from the late 90s which ended up propelling Michael Underwood to TV fame (in an adult life of course as he was on the kids Crystal Maze too!)