X-Factor - The Simon and Cheryl Show

I was struck how much this season's X-Factor is about the judges, not the contestants. It's not just about the Cheryl Cole Fashion Show, complete with eye-catching "CD" dresses. It's also about how the judges are reacting to each other, and in particular the way Simon has started picking on Cheryl.

Something is going on, as evidenced by the body-language. Take a look at this screen-shot taken during one of Saturday's performances.

As you can see, both Louis and Dannii are sitting normally on their chairs. But Cheryl is sitting way forward, practically on the edge of her seat. Why? Because Simon has draped his arm across her chair, and the only way for her to avoid intimacy is for her to sit as forward as possible.

Perhaps she's too polite to just tell him to back off and stop invading her space. But she's using body language to do so instead. Simon reacts to this by picking on her much like a frustrated boy in the playground with a girl he fancies. And Cheryl has responded by telling everyone in interviews how annoying she finds him, determined that everyone should know they arn't bosum buddies lest anyone get the wrong idea.

My guess is that he fancies her like crazy, but the feelings are not returned. And because he's head honcho on the show, she can't tell him where to get off, she has to use passive aggression instead. I wonder what the employment psychologists would make of it all. Hopefully Cheryl's star will continue to rise to the point where she can afford to tell Simon Cowell where to stick his show and attitude.

Cheryl Cole's live performance on X-Factor

I was really nervous Sunday evening waiting for Cheryl's performance. I couldn't help wondering if her vocals were strong enough to pull it off.

But Cheryl Cole is a professional and rose to the occasion. There are still some on the net who are trying to insist that she mimed - their arguments usually involve camera angles etc. I would say to them to listen to the live performance and then listen to the actual Fight For This Love record. As someone who has been playing the FFTL official video on Youtube over and over for the last few weeks, the difference in the live performance fairly leapt out. The official CD is heavily synthesised, the live performance was recognisably her voice, complete with occasional flat notes and failure to hit the big note in the riff before the end of the performance. She was definitely singing live, and her performance was good, and the dancing was brilliant.

Poor Whitney Housten who followed her got showed up. Whitney's voice is about a thousand times better than Cheryl's - but unlike Cheryl, she's not as determined or ambitious. Cheryl has a lot of fight in her - she wouldn't dream of trashing her looks with drink or drugs the way Whitney has carelessly trashed her voice. I suppose in the end it's not what talent you are born with that counts, but how you play the hand you are dealt with.

Cheryl is clearly determined to make the most of her opportunities. I'm guessing she put in hours practising to make that performance work. Props to her for that. To get an idea of just how far she has come, take a look at this page on Popstars the Rivals (and check out how demurely all the girls in that contest were dressed - Kandy Rain take note).

Kandy Rain leave X-factor and blame Cheryl

Kandy Rain were voted off X-factor on Sunday - by the general public, not the judges. But the group persist in blaming Cheryl Cole and Danni Minogue for their exit.

Actually, if the judges had that much power, the twins would have been voted off - the twins got harsh comments from the judges too. The reason Kandy Rain left was because the public just didn't identify with them - and Cheryl and Dannii had simply spotted the potential problem and warned the girls about it.

As Cheryl explained afterwards in the X-tra factor on ITV2, many of the viewers watching are girls who didn't identify with the group. And she was proved correct by the fact that Kandy Rain didn't get the votes they needed. X-factor is a family program and many girls aged 8-15 are watching the show with their mothers, and girls simply don't identify with strippers, don't want to be strippers when they grow up and don't want to dress like strippers or have anyone think they look like strippers.

Cheryl Cole style icon and Dannii Minogue fashionista both understand their audience. When Cheryl dresses herself - see her outfits for X-factor - they have all have a sweet girly look. You don't get to be the face of L'Oreal looking like a dominatrix. Cheryl additionally has a personal dislike of strippers due to the way they latch onto her husband on footballers-nights-out and then sell their stories to the papers, so personal feelings may have come into it. But Dannii too thought the stripper look was too much.

Kandy Rain told Digital Spy that "We're not going to wear things you'd wear walking down the street.... We don't want to be like other girl groups, we want to be in costume." Which is fine, it's a free country after all. Just realise that the audience is also free to ignore you, not vote for you and not buy your records. The type of person into strippers doesn't buy records anyway, and they are a small segment of the population. If these girls are too dim to realise that, they arn't ever going to make it.

X-Factor 2009 - first live show

Well! What a fractious show!

First of all Louis and Simon ganged up against Cheryl and Dannii over the style of the girl group Candy Rain (the girls thought they should have toned down the we're-strippers thing). Then Cheryl and Simon sniped at each other continually.

At the end of the show, Louis, Dannii and Cheryl were a bit weird about Danyl Johnson's performance. Danyl gave one of the best performances of the show - but got slated by Louis and Cheryl for being cocky and unpopular with the public, and then Dannii made a bizarre comment about his sexuality. What was she thinking? She might well have just made him popular for the first time, as the sympathy vote pours in.

The above was just the entertainment provided by the judges. As for the acts? Stacey Johnson was good. Lucie Jones has a great voice. The girl group Miss Frank were great, as well as Joseph, one of the solo boys.

My impression was that Cheryl and Louis made the best of a bad hand, Dannii's three acts all performed well, but Simon's were a let down, apart from Danyl.

Tomorrow night is the results show, where one of the acts departs. My feeling is that one of Cheryl's acts - Rikki Loney or Lloyd Daniels, will be kicked out.

X Factor - the judges houses edition

X factor goes to the judges houses tomorrow, to choose the final 12 for the live shows. I predict we shall see Louis in Dublin, and Danni and Simon in either Spain or the Carribean. Last year Cheryl tastefully chose the South of France, and I'm hoping she's just as upmarket this time.

Of course we shall also be looking to see what the female judges are wearing in the laid-back atmosphere of the judges environment. Last year Danni was garbed in a weird sort of turban-caftan outfit which made her look older than she is. She's upped her fashion game this year though, so I'm expecting an improvement. As for Cheryl, the march of Cheryl Cole's Style goes on. She hasn't really put a foot wrong, fashion-wise in the audition and bootcamp episodes and I'm hoping to see some really delicious summer-holiday fashion from her in the judges house episode.

As for the contestants - because of the way they've set up the audition shows, and the prominence given to certain acts on YouTube (as featured videos by X Factor), I think we can predict that Danyl Johnson, Jamie Archer, Stacey Solomon and Lucie Jones will definitely go through. For the boys I predict Joseph McElderry and Lloyd Daniels will go through, and for the groups, Miss Fitz and those annoying twins. All based on the prominence of YouTube.

We shall see tomorrow if this theory is borne out...

Update 5th October: Well my predictions were right, apart from Miss Fitz. Clearly X Factor up to the judges house episode was filmed before it started airing, and the XFactor channel on Youtube were told to give prominence to the contestants who would make it to the live shows - and all their performances are on there as featured videos, widescreen in HD!

I thought Simon Cowell made a mistake putting Danyl Johnson through, he should have given the chance to that guy from Pop-stars the rivals. Of the girls, I hope Stacey Solomon wins (I note her fans have already got a headstart in supporting her judging from the comment). I think she's had a difficult few years, but unlike the others tries to put a smiling face on things, no sob stories from her. Her voice is the best in the contest along with Jamie Archers. Should be an interesting live show.