Ben Haenow thinks the editors of 'The X Factor' try to "create characters" out of the contestants.
Ben Haenow
The 35-year-old singer - who won the ITV talent show in 2014 - has criticised the programme's editing, suggesting there's too much emphasis put on personality rather than musical talent.
Ben said: "It's all in the edit, man, the way that they can make you look.
"I think they want to kind of try to create characters and I think that's the unfortunate thing about it. As much as they kind of portray it as these normal people, they're definitely looking for characters."
Ben believes the contestants find themselves at the "mercy" of the editors.
He also thinks there's a deliberate effort to seek an "emotional" narrative.
The star told FUBAR Radio's 'Access All Areas': "You kind of see the same thing year in year out. There's always kind of like an emotional one.
"You can do and say what you want but when it's edited into a sort of half an hour, hour programme, you're at their mercy really."
Ben now recognises there are common themes running through various series of the show.
He said: "It's definitely something that I saw looking back, having gone through the year with some of those people and then seeing how they were almost portrayed on the TV was completely different to the person they were, so you've got to be careful with it.
"But it's out of your control when you're on the show."
Ben made his comments shortly after Misha B accused the show of portraying her as a "bully" back in 2011.
She added: "Before I went on to the live show, they proposed to change my name to Misha B.
"Little did I know, this was to play into their corrupted agenda for the 'Misha Bully' they had already orchestrated for this."
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