Ah, they really don't look right together as The X Factor judges. It'll be interesting to see how it works out, I can see another change happening after a few audition days.
To be honest I am finding the choice of judges hard to understand. As much as I like Gary Barlow, he’s not got the most exciting and lively personality. He seems very relaxed and to be crude, boring in interviews. Kelly Rowland is the complete opposite and very lively but this often results in grating against the audience. Tulisa is probably the lesser known of all four. Sure she’s in a group that’s growing and producing music at the moment, but unfortunately she seems to have been overlooked in terms of her appeal. To those over the age of 16 (i.e the voters and ones who buy into The X Factor brand), she is often perceived as a ‘chav’. And Louis is Louis. The less said about that the better.
It will be interesting to see how the four gel on screen, and whether there will be another publicity stunt along the way along the lines of the Friedman/ Walsh saga. The audience is becoming wise to the stunts with many predicting a dramatic change to the line up along the way, which does have tones of the show becoming a parody of itself.
Another issue is without Cowell and Cole, has it lost its appeal? Are Barlow, Tulisa and Kelly Rowland going to make the same headlines and engage with the audience in the same way?
After watching all episodes of The Voice in America, I believe this show could have massive appeal in the UK. The twist (or gimmick depending on your view) of blind auditions and battle rounds, do focus on the artists and their talent instead of the judges. It’s been produced in such a slick way, it could be a SyCo production, creating a hybrid format of an almost game show setup, with a familiar purpose but focusing on the talent. If the BBC can pull this off and get to Universal pick the correct artists as reported they are doing, it could be the beginning of a new talent phase and the demise of X Factor similar to Big Brother.
To be honest I am finding the choice of judges hard to understand.
The simple answer is, it's the most credible and relevant line up they could get. Most successful people won't come within a mile of the show in case it harms their repuation or because its so time consuming. They could have easily trotted out Natalie Imbruglia, Frankie from The Saturdays and someone from Westlife, but they've gone for people with different approaches, different appeal . There is no doubt that the show won't be as successful without Simon and Cheryl (and even Dannii) but retaining that panel for a fourth year would have been just as bad. But the show is that big there is a very long way down before it is even considered as a slight flop for ITV. Even it loses 30% of last years audience, it will still be around 10m viewers although in reality it just won't lose that porportion.
I think we should just wait and see what happens when it goes on air in August.
Can't help feeling that in a couple of weeks either Tulisa or Kelly won't want to continue (for whatever reason) and Cheryl will be parachuted in?
Remember the shock replacement of Louis by Brian, only for it not to work out, and before we knew it, Louis was back on-board!!!
Personally though, I like the new team
On a side note, there's all this talk of The BBC and The Voice. Has The BBC actually secured the rights of the format? If anything, bring back Fame Academy in it's season one incarnation
