Obviously The X Factor has always been under immense scrutiny for being fixed, but just how fixed (if at all) do you believe the show is? Are there any parts about the show that make you believe it is fixed in any way, or are you one of the people who are too madly in love with the show and refuse to believe there are any flaws with it and it is not fixed in the slightest?

 

A few observational points:

 

· A producer approaching Louis Walsh and whispering in his ear during Carolynne Poole's performance of 'There You'll Be', apparently telling him the running order that the judges would be voting, but Dermot tells them who is going to be casting their vote when anyway

· Shelley Smith's save-me song being 'One Night Only' while Lorna Simpson's was 'There You'll Be' - the exact same choices as last year's first week sing-off, with the exact same outcome (in relation to who sung what song)

· Triple J being sent home to District3 at Boot Camp before returning to the show in Judges' Houses as Union J with a new member (making an odd number of acts; 7) and then going on to be District3's "enemy" in terms of on the live shows - Union J ultimately became more successful than them

 

Is there anything else that you would plant in there?

 

Dan Ferrari-Lane from District3 says:

 

“Stick to who you wan to be, don’t be forced to change like we were,”

 

“We struggled on the show. They wanted to make out a rivalry between us and Union J when we were probably closest to them.”

 

“I think they always planned a battle of the bands that year and we were stuck in the middle. They 100 percent pushed Union J to win over us, which sucked.”

 

“Looking back, the songs they made us sing were atrocious. But we felt like we couldn’t fight it.”

 

“You are on their show and play by their terms. There’s nothing you can say. They’re the bosses.”

 

“We felt they were making fools of us.”

 

Lorna Simpson says:

 

“They know the outcome of the whole competition. It’s prepared.

 

“It’s TV and they have to be ahead.”

 

“It's unfair.”

 

“X Factor set me up to go out in the first week. They underplayed me… it was set up,”

 

“It was like I jumped from the audition room to Boot Camp. Of course I sat there with my family ready to watch episodes but my arena audition wasn’t ever shown.”

 

“I had backstage talks and loads of fun stuff, even filming at the house — but none of it was shown.”

 

“In all my auditions, I nailed everything and had perfect comments. I could have been given a lot more air time.”

 

And obviously, the wonderful Carolynne Poole KNOWS the show is a fix too, so there's no need to go over what she said again.

 

Personally, I do agree with both Dan and Lorna (and Carolynne) that the show is all mapped out, and the winner is set in stone. The producers know who they want to win the show and they'll do everything they can to make it happen. They don't give the public the sort of control that they make out we have. Everybody attends auditions (and some who attend auditions are specially hunted by the producers, so where is the good in giving people who come off of their own accord a chance?), and some of them have even made this year's live shows (see Sam Callahan, and in last year's case - Jahméne Douglas). After auditions, it's obviously whittled down to the best people, but when it gets to Judges' Houses, it's obvious that it's where the producers take control. The judges are told who stays and who goes, and they deliver that news. In the live shows, the producers take further control by giving the contestants they want rid of shit song choices, or forcing decisions on the judges that they rather wouldn't make. If the producers' favourite to win ends up in the bottom two, they'll obviously send the other person home and make out they had the least amount of public votes. If it's the judges' vote, they'll make sure one of the judges follows instructions and sends the person they want to leave home.

 

It's only really become noticeable in the past couple of years. The show started out with a lot of (or some) promise, but now it's just gone to shit. I hope that all of these stories about it being fixed and its continual loss of ratings to Strictly are its downfall and that it is axed soon because people are losing interest in it, and it's just not the same as it used to be (that's probably a different matter altogether). I for one would be happy to see it come to an end if it meant that people's lives were not being played with and they weren't just poking fun at them for their own kicks and to try and get somebody who THEY believe is the next big recording star, not who the public actually want. It's just manipulation (especially with song choices - they can make their favourite look fantastic even if they're shit by giving them the best song choices and auto-tuning the shit out of them while in the meantime giving their least favourites terrible song choices, terrible wardrobe style, terrible performance, etc.)

 

What's your thoughts, then?

I wouldn't say fixed; but I'd definitely say manipulated. Like I'm pretty sure that some acts are told what to sing at auditions (or maybe they get a 'suggestion'), I'm sure the performance order each week is formulated with the favourites in mind etc. it's definitely engineered to favour the producers' favourite(s), although who that is maybe isnt clear until a few weeks in.

It's part of the editing process. I remember Sophie Habibas was not really showed yet she managed to last for a decent amount of time.

 

Lorna sounds incredibly bitter.

It's part of the editing process. I remember Sophie Habibas was not really showed yet she managed to last for a decent amount of time.

 

Lorna sounds incredibly bitter.

Sophie didn't win though. It's just a matter of when you're dropped by the producers.

Not read that opening post but *every* show has an element of editing to it, but I wouldn't listen to what eliminated contestants have said, I mean, they're not gonna be bitter at all are they? I don't care whether it's fixed, I enjoy it anyway, the fix claims are actually boring me year in, year out.

I wouldn't say fixed; but I'd definitely say manipulated. Like I'm pretty sure that some acts are told what to sing at auditions (or maybe they get a 'suggestion'), I'm sure the performance order each week is formulated with the favourites in mind etc. it's definitely engineered to favour the producers' favourite(s), although who that is maybe isnt clear until a few weeks in.

 

Nail on the head. Not fixed, but manipulated. The producers cannot fix the phone lines, but they can do as much as humanly possible to try and influence people to vote.

 

Back to the District3 thing, I'm sure Union J were allowed back in because Rough Copy weren't allowed to compete? The guy sounds very bitter. They seem to forget some of the awful performances they made then!

I wouldn't say it was fixed at all. Especially to say that they lie about who comes where in the phone vote. With everything that has happened in recent years with phone vote scandals there is no way ITV/Simon would risk getting their names dragged into those murky waters. Obviously there is some manipulation, with what auditions they show, who they push to the front, or give the pimp slot to. With regards to the week 1 sing off, I would say that is a freak coincidence more than anything. There is fix claims nearly every year, the first major one I remember is Maria V Conway Sisters back in series 2. However Maria was never as popular as the backlash would show. If you are in the bottom 2 not enough people voted for you, end of. Maria's record sales (or lack of) show how little people cared for her. They didn't hide last year that some people were invited by producers to audition, they did the same on The Voice as well. At the end of the day the most popular contestants on the show, winners or not will still get record deals and be successful. Unless viewers drop below 5million or a great alternative is found ITV won't axe the show. 8million viewers on a Saturday and Sunday night is still amazing.

The guy sounds very bitter. They seem to forget some of the awful performances they made then!

That's the thing though, he hasn't forgotten them at all. He remembers all of them and admits that they were quite bad, but it's not their fault. They're made to do terrible routines and terrible songs so that they come across bad and are ultimately sent home.

Yeah, I don't think they could fix phone lines, that would be ridiculously controversial and they can't fix a winner but as Liam and Rooney have said, they will try very hard to get it their way.

 

Kingsland Road seem like chosen ones at the moment, I'm pretty much certain Ellie Goulding was told to say they were her favourite. Just about every guest performer mentioned James Arthur last year and while I'm sure some like Ed Sheeran may have been genuine, not all.

 

EDIT: Having said that, Jai McDowall works as an example of why I don't believe BGT or X Factor is fixed as Simon Cowell CERTAINLY didn't want that. I doubt he'll want Nicholas to win either, but I think he will.

When Lucie was eliminated against Jedward, that was the first time in my opinion we started seeing that the show is manipulated as there is no way Jedward were better singers than Lucie and Simon is usually the last person who would've saved a 'novelty' act. However at the end of the day, Lucie did get the lowest public vote despite how much she was my favourite that series. The only time that the show was actually fixed in my opinion was the Carolynne and Rylan results. Louis clearly said he wanted to save Carolynne but Dermot pushed for who he wanted to send home. Yet when Louis says he wants to take it to deadlock, that was accepted straight away. Therefore, that result was fixed in my opinion as Dermot must have been told that he should be expecting Louis to send home Carolynne (hence his hesitation when Louis wanted to save Carolynne) and the producer that spoke to Louis during Carolynne's performance must have told him to send her home. By hesitating in such a way, I think that was Louis showing how much he wanted to keep Carolynne especially as he sent her home at judges' houses the previous year.

I wouldn't go as far as saying it's fixed, after all like people have said they can't fix the phone lines, but it is so heavily edited and manipulated. The press coverage that surrounds the show as well is so engineered it's unreal. Most of it is pretty transparent but it's life, reality TV is always going to be manipulated in someway to give the results the show execs want.

When Lucie was eliminated against Jedward, that was the first time in my opinion we started seeing that the show is manipulated as there is no way Jedward were better singers than Lucie and Simon is usually the last person who would've saved a 'novelty' act. However at the end of the day, Lucie did get the lowest public vote despite how much she was my favourite that series. The only time that the show was actually fixed in my opinion was the Carolynne and Rylan results. Louis clearly said he wanted to save Carolynne but Dermot pushed for who he wanted to send home. Yet when Louis says he wants to take it to deadlock, that was accepted straight away. Therefore, that result was fixed in my opinion as Dermot must have been told that he should be expecting Louis to send home Carolynne (hence his hesitation when Louis wanted to save Carolynne) and the producer that spoke to Louis during Carolynne's performance must have told him to send her home. By hesitating in such a way, I think that was Louis showing how much he wanted to keep Carolynne especially as he sent her home at judges' houses the previous year.

I fully agree with you about the Carolynne/Rylan bottom two situation. That was just THE WORST (although I'm biased cause Carolynne is just amazing x10000 :kink:)

The thing is Carolynne was never going to win. Having been a third place on Fame Academy no one cared, all the years in between no one was like oh you know who I would love to release a cd, that girl off Fame Academy who didn't win. Even when she got sent home by Louis at judges houses no one was overally missing her. It was only because of who she was in the bottom 2 with that people actually kicked up a fuss. Which is odd because out of 13 singers that week she was the least popular, which is why she still doesn't have a record deal and people now only know her as that girl who lost to Rylan controversially on the X Factor.

Of course she was never going to win, because the producers had already decided by that point that they wanted James to win. I'm sure there are a lot of people who are angered by the situation because she was a lot more talented than Rylan and deserved to be there more than him, not just because "she was up against a novelty act who should have gone instead".

 

And rumour has it she will be releasing an album at some point. ^_^

Of course she was never going to win, because the producers had already decided by that point that they wanted James to win. I'm sure there are a lot of people who are angered by the situation because she was a lot more talented than Rylan and deserved to be there more than him, not just because "she was up against a novelty act who should have gone instead".

 

And rumour has it she will be releasing an album at some point. ^_^

 

I doubt in week 1 James would have been chosen as the winner. Especially with all the Matt related difficulties they had had in the past. I think it was only part way through he became the chosen one, once they went on a destroy Christopher mission.

Carolynne went in week 1 cause she had a poor song choice that was unrelated to theme and tried to make it sound COUNTRY-like. The UK isn't exactly KNOWN for being massive on country music. As much as I liked her, and I'm sure there was some kinda manipulation going on cause Rylan got them headlines, she still wouldn't have appealed to the general public anyway.

Carolynne went in week 1 cause she had a poor song choice that was unrelated to theme and tried to make it sound COUNTRY-like. The UK isn't exactly KNOWN for being massive on country music. As much as I liked her, and I'm sure there was some kinda manipulation going on cause Rylan got them headlines, she still wouldn't have appealed to the general public anyway.

It wasn't unrelated to the theme at all. She sung it very well, it's just a shame she didn't sing 'There You'll Be' on the Saturday, because then the producers may not have got their way. If she had continued with songs like she did in the sing-off with the odd up-beat or country (although on a limit), she could have gone further [until the srs manipulation and fixing from the producers kicked in].

Please tell me how Starships is related to the theme 'Heroes'?

 

Regardless, however much you love her, she wasn't gonna be big, in the same way Shelley this year isn't gonna be big. They don't have mass appeal.

The thing is Carolynne was never going to win. Having been a third place on Fame Academy no one cared, all the years in between no one was like oh you know who I would love to release a cd, that girl off Fame Academy who didn't win. Even when she got sent home by Louis at judges houses no one was overally missing her. It was only because of who she was in the bottom 2 with that people actually kicked up a fuss. Which is odd because out of 13 singers that week she was the least popular, which is why she still doesn't have a record deal and people now only know her as that girl who lost to Rylan controversially on the X Factor.

 

My sister wanted her CD for Christmas the year she was on Fame Academy XD although we were only about 7 at the time Haha

Sorry to double post,

 

I remember thinking it was a fix the time Simon Cowell sent home The Conway Sisters, I think that was the only time in X Factor history that a judge has sent his own act home without it being both of his acts in the sing off