Tulisa
Tulisa seems to have judged her last performance on the X Factor after reports have emerged that she’s set to be axed from the show as producers look for ways to boost the show’s ailing ratings.
The trouble is though that while Tulisa split opinion on the show, she’s nothing like the biggest problem the show has to get rid of to get back its viewers. They don’t even have to look far to find it, as it’s sat right there on the judging panel in the shape of Louis Walsh.
Cowell has supposedly fought long and hard to keep his old friend Walsh on the show, but we can’t figure out the reason why. Tulisa’s poor album sales have been targeted as one of the reasons why she’s set for the axe, but Louis Walsh doesn’t have a contemporary artist on his books who hasn’t been through the reality shows.
Louis Walsh is far too often just embarrassing on the show, constantly making pantomime acts and banging on about the show instead of focusing on the singing talent. Getting involved in stupid arguments on the panel doesn’t help too, as it just give the show a horrible cringe factor that just isn’t needed.
Perhaps it was time for Tulisa to go. While she told us in our exclusive interview with her the she enjoys being a part of the panel, she didn’t have the same enthusiasm this year as she did in her first year. Her being changed for someone else isn’t going to revitalise the show.
While Rita Ora is being hotly tipped to take up Tulisa’s seat, the real answer here is Mel B. On her brief time on the show, she was disarmingly honest and frank with contestants, not allowing for mawkish sympathy or fawning horribly over mediocrity. That’s what the show needs, a fresh new set of eyes that’s going to tell it like it is, not another ‘nice-guy’ that’s going to molly-coddle the contestants.
They’ve tried to shake up the formula over the last couple of years with little success, but with a fresh new streak of honesty in the judging panel, the show’s got the first block in place for doing just that. The producers also need to have a good thinking session though and come up with new and original themes for the nights. We’ve heard big band night, disco night and Abba night far too often and they just get horribly repetitive.
How about an a-cappella night, a hip hop night or a Rolling Stones night? It took me 15 seconds to think of those, so I’m sure that with a bit more planning, the X Factor producers could do much better.
The X Factor is in trouble in the UK, there’s no denying it. It’s not in dire straits, but another lack lustre series could see the talent show be put into a tailspin that’s very hard to get out of. With Louis Walsh still on the panel, the show’s in danger of exactly that.