X FACTOR: Campaign to De-rail the show

They did this in the States recently. Some enterprising young bloggers in the USA set up a campaign where they implored potential phone-in voters to deliberately vote for the worst performers of the night. After a few weeks the show became embarressingly unsustainable as the remaining acts got progressively painful to watch, and the programme was being shown up as the complete sham that it is.

Here's a link to an article about it.

I'd really love to see the same kind of campaign to derail the show, start up over here in the UK.

C'mon we know it isn't about musical talent. It certainly isn't about seeking original talent. Actually, it's about finding a squeeky-clean, saturday-night singing/dancing act that fits the bland 'Light entertainment' cookie-cutter.

Having watched this evening's boot camp show, I've finally had enough of seeing the more interesting, unique acts being filtered out in favour of the bland, plastic-looking, nasal-sounding R&B clones.

Sorry...I've reached the gag-response stage. I just can't take it any more.

What's more, I want to be part of some movement to show this country's lazy TV content makers that enough's enough. Television viewers in this country are just as bright and discerning as the TV viewers in the States, and we know the piss is being taken out of us by them. So, you know....sorry, but **** off. I can't stomach it any more.

I'm sure there are others out there who feel the same way. I'm sure there are other bloggers out there who've posted a similar call to arms. Hell...let's unite. If you're up for it, pass a link to this blog to anyone you know. Let's really screw over X Factor and the production company behind it (who, by the way, earn millions per show off the phone-in dividend). Because you see....if 6 weeks in, they're left with the worst six acts, they'll start losing viewers as people realise it's no longer a proper contest. With viewer ratings sliding, so will advertising revenue, and that's when the ITV content buyers will have to start to question whether the X Factor talent show formula has finally run out of steam.

Okay...roundabout this point, you're wondering about the ethics of this, right? The good acts I'm asking people to vote off, instead of the crap acts...? Well, look, the good acts, the guys/girls that really can sing and dance - know this....they're already signed up by talent agencies, and believe me, their careers stand a much better chance of longevity by going out early. Seriously. They will thank the day that they didn't burn out on too much Saturday night exposure early on. Trust me.

So, you up for it? Will you pass this blog on to someone else? Do you want to see Simon Cowell shake his head with bemusement and squirm with embaressment at the live show as it gradually gets worse and worse?

Come on...let's do it.

WIP UPDATE

Well, I passed the 100k mark on Monday, and I'm hoping to wrap this novel up on friday at roughly 110-115k words.

It's been a hard book to write, this my 4th novel, and I really can't fathom why that is. My best guess is that this one came after Last Light, which was a work of passion. This 4th novel I've always viewed as a very commercial book, very much in the same mould as A Thousand Suns, a commercial book, but not a work of passion.

I'm now approaching the climax...and climaxes are usually fun to write, from quite an early stage I tend to know how I want to end it...so this should all be straight forward. That said, there's a lot of story threads to tie up.

When I'm done, I'm taking a week off. Then I'll be back to edit it throughout October, then come November, I shall probably start work on a film script, whilst I farm this manuscript out to a handful of trusted beta readers.