On Sunday night, Cheryl Cole allegedly mimed her latest dismal offering in front of a rapturous audience at the X Factor.  The following day many newspapers carried this as front page news.  A singer (and I use the word very loosely) sings a song and gets congratulated for it!  Isn’t this the same principal as giving a plumber a standing ovation for fixing a leaking tap, letting a doctor do a lap of honour for writing a prescription or applauding a Burger King employee for handing over a bag of fries?  People get paid for doing their jobs.  Cheryl Cole gets ridiculously overpaid for singing (or miming as the case may be) why should she be congratulated for this?  She was doing her job, nothing more and not even doing it particularly well.

The X Factor itself has grown into a monster.  It was always a vehicle for Simon Cowell but lately it has become one for the other judges too.  The acts are secondary.  The long lines of wannabes and hopelelessly deluded talent free half-wits who audition for this televised circus are a mere sideshow to the actual business in hand which is the judges attempts to gain publicity.  Everything about the show is calculated, from the judges responses to the “faked” arguments between them.  Even the sacking of Louis Walsh a couple of years ago seemed designed to gain nothing other than publicity for the show.  What amazes me is how the public continue to be sucked in by this charade.  Instead of shunning the programme for the contrived and dishonest ego massaging frenzy that it is, they still watch in their millions.  The winner will have the Christmas number one as they always do.  The judges will rake in more money as they always do and thousands will already be preparing for their auditions next year.  The hype will continue for as long as people allow it to.

Isn’t it time everyone woke up?