Did You See That

ITV’s X Factor returned tonight, for it’s annual slot leading up to an inevitable Christmas number one.

Things have changed around slightly this year, with the ever so smug Dermot O’Leary taking over from Kate Thornton as presenter.

In a scheduling move which maybe unprecedented, Dermot O’Leary was hosting prime time Saturday night shows for both ITV1 and BBC1. Because before X-Factor had finished, National Lottery 100 to 1 started on BBC with, yes, you guessed it, Dermot O’Leary. If Dermot is also presenting Big Brother’s Little Brother tomorrow, he will officially have taken over your TV. Where will he turn up next? The new host of Newsnight perhaps? The Sky At Night with Dermot O’Leary?

It got me wondering as to how this man has become such a hit with the TV bosses. Dermot always comes across to me as so convinced of his own funniness that I imagine he hears canned laughter in his head after his every utterance. Although thankfully he didn’t have to say too much in this opening episode so he was about bearable.

Anyway, back on the X Factor the new line up continued with Dannii Minogue and Brian Friedman recruited to replace the sacked Louis Walsh. Of course, one could make the point that Dannii Minogue seems to have no particular qualification for judging the talent of others but I think that would be churlish.

We were reminded of Louis Walsh’s sacking from the very beginning which suggested to me it all was a publicity stunt and he quickly re-hired half way through the program as Sharon and others complaining about a lack of chemistry, and Brian seemingly carrying the can.

And what of the talent? Well, we had the usual rag bag of absolute no hopers and the potentially very talented. Stand out acts for me were:

• 14 year old Emily singing Randy Crawford’s Almaz
• 79 year old Joy from Kent, who played invisible instruments (prompting Simon to ask if he could see them - No Simon, they’re invisible), although she may have been better suited to Britain’s Got Talent.
• Nikki, who sang “I Will Always Love You”. I think the last performer of the day must be statistically more likely to do well judging by the number of people who have turned up at the end of a bad day and been excellent. Or is that just part of the format?

So that’s episode one out of the way and we can look forward to the X Factor being a regular fixture for the rest of the year. Don’t try and fight it. Just enjoy it for the throwaway nonsense it is.

Emily sings Almaz

Nikki sings I Will Always Love You

What did you think of the X Factor?