Karaoke with a big budget.

He thought he was putting down one fat, talentless performer when actually he was summing up the show - as Leona Lewis (doing a Mariah Carey karaoke number on a big budget) then illustrated.

Glad they finally admitted what we all knew.
How fed up are bands/producers etc getting with the "I can`t hear myself properly" generation, followed by, "can you turn the drums down?", in a live rehersal room?

One little step on the ladder and a number one with no grounding.
Straight out of the karaoke clubs.

While I was watching, I couldn't help be reminded of all the times past when "experts" have taken control of raw talent and managed to surpress it. When Leon came on in the suit that didn't suit, visibly shying away from the dancing girls and singing a song he obviously wasn't comfortable with, I thought "Why don't they just let him be himself?" He's got a great voice, but I doubt we'll be allowed to hear it properly in these finals.

Sheena Easton was far better before the "experts" got hold of her.

I can't bring myself to watch the awful X Factor. I don't agree with something that purports to be a 'talent' show but has virtually nil real talent.

I did unfortunately catch the later show where a little of what everyone did is shown. Oh dear, it was far worse than I could have imagined. How are they getting away with it. It is an insult to all those talented singers who work hard but will never make it to the tv world (or even want to on this type of c..p). How can these judges honestly say these are the best singers from all the thousands that were auditioned. What a farce. We all know that at the initial auditions before producers, the talent does not get through.

Please someone stop this programme getting prime time tv - its an insult to the general public. Thank goodness there is some dancing to watch now!

We watched only the final of the last season, after mainly reading about it and generally avoiding it, and were so moved to despair, I`m afraid your own boardhost was the recipient of my amazed and stunned despairing phone call of dismay and utter bemusement!

There has been so much more hype surrounding this rubbish because they know it is reaching the end of its course. Now how many people are going to be watching next weekend to see if Sharon Osbourne actually returns. Maybe this is the next programme to be 'outed' for misleading the viewers???

Hve the bookies made X-Factor , evens on Xmas number one yet?

I gather they are not even taking bets on the Xmas No1 anymore since they believe (wrongly) that it's a dead cert.

I think Leon looked uncomfortable because he was absolutely shitting himself, how he managed to produce such a good vocal I'll never know but it did show that he has a great voice.

I thought it was refreshing to see a well known song performed so differently but the judges absolutely slated the arrangement. All the other perfomances were run of the mill, they should have been slated for no originality.

I think as the top post suggests, this show doesn't want originality, it wants Karaoke clones. Sad.

I still hold out hope for another Number One from Cliff. I really don't see any of the X-Factor lot being good enough to have a Number One without the hype of the TV show. It'll be real cool if Justin gets a single out and beats them to it.

I expect this 'Sharon quits' incident is yet another publicity stunt. Did anybody believe Louis had been genuinely sacked?

I want mistakes and human beings being themselves and showing who they are, not people cloning voices and failing because they are not perfect at being somebody else.
Surely the Z Factors point, is to create crossover hits for the masses, but there are no Proclaimers, Wurzels Streets or other diallectually original accented voices.

No-one believed Louis had been genuinely sacked. Then there's the backstage clash between Sharon and Danni - pathetic.

The X Factor has already been outed on the news - apparently over a million votes were not counted last year - could that be because Simon had arranged for Leona to win from the beginning. Not that the winner is anything special, just the best of a bad bunch.