The X Factor
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| The winner: Reese Mastin |
Four nights a week I sit down with my mum and brother to watch X Factor Australia. Dad is like Mr Pullen dragged into watching it just because his family watches it. My mum and brother get so worked up cheering for their favourites and getting mad when their favourites go home. And I admit I used to too…. until I researched it for this blog. The first thing that came up on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X_Factor_(Australia_season_3) was REESE MASTIN WINNER!!!! Ever since that day I have not been entertained by the X Factor because there is no excitement in who gets through because you already know who wins.
My dad says the show is rigged and I agree with him in some ways. For example for the last couple of episodes on decider night, my dad predicted it would go to dead lock and it did. Also the mentors keep saying to people like Reese Mastin “you are going to win this thing” or to Andrew Wishart “you will be in the final three”. And low and behold these two comments come true. This makes me feel like everyone except the contestants know how each week is going to end and who will end up winning the entire competition.
I feel the show does not live up to its entire reality theme. Where in one show would you actually get a group of young black men (YMS), a working class white boy, Breast cancer victim (sob story), an Ethnic minority, a Metrosexual male and an older white guy all at once? Very unlikely. I believe that all these people were picked so that the show represented the people in Australia not because they had great voices. This representation of people means that the show appeals to a large audience. for example people like Johnny Ruffo and Reese Mastin were picked to appeal to teenage girls as they are ‘hot’ (I personally do not think they are), whereas Andrew Wishart is and man with kids trying to make their life better so he would appeal to dads and men thus creating many peoples attraction to one show. Genius.
Also throughout the show the judges pick to send people home who are better than the person they are in the bottom with. For example the week Audio Vixen (a band) went home they were versing Johnny Ruffo (under 25 boys) who was vocally less talented than them. The judges said it was because they thought that was what Australia would like. Saying this makes me feel like they already know who had the lowest votes and think that it should be like that. Therefore they are not completely going of the performance the person has just done but also on the influence of votes.
I also found during my research that this is the third season of X Factor Australia. I had watched the episode before this one and know the winner was Altiyan Childs, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X_Factor_(Australia_season_2)). Since that show I have seen him in music videos and on album covers. However the first season’s winner is a band I have never heard of before called Random. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_X_Factor_(Australia_season_1)). This variation makes me wonder whether being on X Factor will make you famous or not.
All in all X factor is has media written all over it. I mean they already let you know who wins as it is not a New Zealand based TV show, it is rigged and some of the talents are picked just for representation.
