The X Factor 2016

The show gave a few good performances tonight. Many were over produced with music and staging overpowering the voice of the artist, but overall it was just too similar.

The start of this series did feel different and had a different energy. I'm not sure if it's the lack of consistency especially where fonts are concerned with yet another used for the contestants names, or whether it just hasn't been changed enough.

With the graphics, set and even same backing music being used I kept expecting Dermot to appear. Olly & Caroline did a good job but felt like stand ins. I know the show is about the contestants but I feel like it needs to big up Olly & Caroline to make it feel different.

I can't remember if it felt like this when Dermot replaced Kate. The same set for was carried over from series 3, but maybe Dermot added that bit of energy to proceedings.

Here's a clip from the results part of the first live show.
WARNING: The following clip contains vocal performances that some viewers may find offensive.

Watching some of Saturday night's show via this afternoon's repeat I can't feeling that having two presenters doesn't really work in the current format. Maybe if they had changed/tweaked the format slightly they could make better use of Olly & Caroline (maybe looking at how Strictly works with two hosts).

The show also in some performances appears to be trying to distract the audience from the singer/group that's performing, notably by having lots of backing dancers/singers/musicians present on stage. The season 4 results show clip shows the X Factor has used backing artists for a long time, though the numbers on stage used to be fairly minimal, compared to some performances last night. Personally I would like to see a week where the acts had to perform 'bare-bone' without any backing artists on stage.

With regards to Peter Dickson returning I wonder whether this (and possibly a few others things) might possibly be a u-turn by the producers, panicking about the ratings so far this series. The way his voice-over is used to introduce the act's performance does feel slightly shoehorned in to me, and not really necessary.

I'm one of the many who've bailed - just couldn't care less about any of the contestants this year while the show itself has done nothing to convince me it's worth watching. The problem with the live shows is they've got the same issues they've had for the last few years yet producers still do nothing to address them. They'll panic next week and make the wrong changes but dropping the themes and letting the acts be individuals, rather than conform to this ridiculous notion they have to be a jack of all trades. Like Strictly they could still do the odd theme week - and by using them sparingly they'd actually feel worth it, but overall the show should fit around the contestants, not the other way round.

I do think ultimately though it's the annual changes to the judging panel, and to a lesser extent the format, which has hurt the show - but as usual Cowell and co. will look to fix all the wrong things.

If ratings don't recover and get back in the 7-8m mark in the weeks ahead I think they'd be wise to confirm the next series as the last before it goes downhill any further. If it does continue beyond that I suspect it'll be stripped back to one night with costs cut throughout the audition process too.

The show is just so tired. I've not watched it properly for a while but my boyfriend does so I've caught a fair bit of it and they haven't changed enough of the show to "rescue" it and what they have changed weren't the elements they needed to or haven't worked as they would have hoped.

For the early shows they should have lost the clinche elements of the production and just toned it down a bit. The changes to the judging panel are nothing new and neither Rita or Nick have brought anything special. Having two hosts just looks odd and doesn't work, plus there was nothing wrong with Dermot. I'm not sure why they haven't changed the titles or set just to freshen things up a bit and bringing Peter back seems odd when again that's all a bit cliche and they could have made some tweaks with that.

I do like Caroline and Olly and don't think they can be blamed for any of the shows current problems, while Dermot was right to jump when he did, whether he was about to be pushed or not. As Charlie said they needed to change the format up a bit to suit two hosts rather than just splitting the script and I think overall it just needs to have a much more relaxed atmosphere.

Olly and Caroline splitting up the presenting a little this week - Caroline interviewed Fourth Impact after their performance alone, then Olly threw to Nick for the next act from a different part of the studio. I like this better. It seems pointless having two hosts if they're both always together for every link.

Edit: Olly also went backstage before the break to tease who was coming up.

It still doesn't work with two presenters, or at least it doesn't NEED two presenters. It just feels like they gone "oh god there's two of them, what can we do with them?!" It feels so forced when they throw to each other.

I don't see how but this rubbish programme won the 'Best British TV show' award at some awards ceremony BBC Radio 1 recently hosted.

Nick Grimshaw?

Because the Radio 1 Teen Awards is a really shallow awards ceremony that means nothing.

Tom Daley wins best sports person every year, regardless of his achievements in the given year, best TV show is usually EastEnders for no particular reason.

Shallow as they may be, Cowell will be using that as part of his deluded defence that The X Factor isn't going down the pan.

"The show is doing better than ever. In fact, we've just walked away with the Best British TV Show award at the Radio 1 Teen Awards."

It does look suspiciously biased - no public vote involved? Because X Factor probably only won that award because Nick Grimshaw (the award show's host!) is on the show now. Eastenders normally wins just because it's the BBC, I guess. Would be embarrassing if Britain's Got Talent got it.