The X Factor

News, Reviews & Features
  • The X Factor: season 15, final recap: "Lastly, thanks to Just Eat"

    TV Feature | Matthew Horton | 4th December 2018

    All good things must come to an end. Complacent, repetitive, nowhere near as vital as they used to be things must come to an end as well. And the TV shows they recap. Sorry, this could go on forever. Speaking of which – it's the X Factor Final!

  • The X Factor: season 15, semi-final recap: "It's the same old song"

    TV Feature | Matthew Horton | 26th November 2018

    As Benjamin Franklin once said, there are only three things that are certain in life: death, taxes and pre-GCSE hip-hop sensations Acacia & Aaliyah singing Skepta's Shutdown if The X Factor happens to be on. Look it up. When he wasn't flying kites or finding nations, that guy couldn't half predict a teen grime duo. Sorry, what's that? Franklin my Benjamins, it's only the X Factor semi-final!

  • The X Factor: season 15, 5th live show recap: "Rules? I AM the rules!"

    TV Feature | Matthew Horton | 19th November 2018

    It's Big Band Week! You know Big Band Week. It's when the finalists sing any song they like, in any style they fancy, just as long as there's a big band somewhere in the room, playing or otherwise. And that's not the only rule bent out of shape this weekend. No. They also flout all of the others. It's like nothing matters anymore.

  • The X Factor: season 15, 4th live show recap: “What happens in Ibiza…”

    TV Feature | Matthew Horton | 12th November 2018

    When did Nile Rodgers meet all these X Factor finalists in Ibiza? Were we supposed to have watched all the auditions and six-chair challenges and judges’ houses stages and stuff? These questions and more not even close to answered as we arrive at one of the highlights of the X Factor calendar: Movie Week! It’s righ...

  • The X Factor: season 15, 3rd live show recap: "DALEKGATE"

    TV Feature | Matthew Horton | 5th November 2018

    The third live show of this year's X Factor was a total fiasco. They also had problems with the sound. Thank goodness Nile Rodgers was there to save the day, the Chic disco don standing in for Robbie Williams when he swans off on tour to South America or whatever excuse he's using to strand his wife in the UK without him for a fortnight. Still, Nile Rodgers. The elusive Nile Rodgers. Did you know you only get to see Nile if you say his name into a mirror three times? And every time you turn on the telly.

  • The X Factor: season 15, 2nd live show recap: "Guilty! Pleasure?"

    TV Feature | Matthew Horton | 29th October 2018

    We've just remembered The X Factor's still going, so let's get back on board with Britain's second favourite talent show featuring Simon Cowell. There's a lot to catch up on. Robbie Williams has found himself a wife, Louis Walsh has been replaced by a whole new Louis and it's all on telly at about midnight so it doesn't get embarrassed by Strictly. It's time! To face! The music! Or an approximation thereof.

  • Just wait till he thinks he can sing, parents tell Cowell

    TV News | Ed Williamson | 16th February 2014

    Parents across the UK congratulated Simon Cowell on the birth of his son this weekend, while delighting in anticipation that the boy would one day want to pursue a singing career.

  • Cyrus X Factor performance needed tiresome controversy bid, say fans

    TV News | Ed Williamson | 19th November 2013

    Viewers were left non-plussed by the performance of Miley Cyrus on Saturday's edition of The X Factor, taking to social media to lament the absence of a transparent headline-grabbing stunt of some kind.

    "It was hugely disappointing," wrote one. "I tuned in on the assumption that she might turn up on stage, get her bum out and stab a dwarf to death, or shit in her dungarees and use them like a catapult to fling it at the audience. But she just sat on this weird hill and sang a song about construction plant that I'm almost certain she isn't licensed to operate.

    "A woman in her position has a duty to set feminism back by at least ten years with each appearance on television, and I for one will not stand for this."

  • Kingsland Road to have street named after them

    TV News | Ed Williamson | 5th November 2013

    X Factor boyband evictees Kingsland Road are to be honoured by the London Borough of Hackney, which has announced its plan to name a street after them. "It seems a fitting tribute," a council spokesperson confirmed. "We regret that for safety reasons we are unable to invite them to the unveiling ceremony, however, because the railway bridge where it runs into Shoreditch High Street is quite low, and their hair is so very tall."

  • Missing space blamed for District3 X-Factor exit

    TV News | Ed Williamson | 12th November 2012

    The utter lunacy of District3 being called District3 and not District 3 has been widely cited as the cause of the group's departure from The X-Factor on Sunday.