Lopez Blogs

I refer, of course, to arguably the world's most overrated TV talent show: The X Factor. There are now many international versions of this show, which might actually be ok: I just want to clarify that my criticism relates solely to the British version.

In these times of austerity, cuts and the government from hell, what's on the cover of the newspapers? The X Factor. Perhaps that sums up why our country is in such a mess. It dominates press, magazines, even the TV news. Why? What's so special? It's only a third rate, past its sell-by date TV talent show, which quite frankly has got far too big for its boots. Believe it or not, I used to watch it once, back in the early days, (although admittedly I resented it from the beginning because my beloved "Pop Idol" was axed after two seasons in favour of this manipulative piece of s**t).

I couldn't care less about who's in/who's out/who should have been picked/who shouldn't have been picked. What I do care about is the amount of time wasted on it by our media, and the ruthless manipulation of the great British public, not to mention its dominance of the British charts over the years. There may be some good acts who have come out of this contest, but their careers are then destroyed by the same machine which created them.

There is clearly an appetite for prime time music shows on TV, so why will no-one take the chance on broadcasting a decent one on a Saturday night? Maybe then I wouldn't need to reach for the off switch.