Has X Factor Passed It's Sell By Date?

This year's X Factor judges

Kingsland Road being booted off show last week

2013 has seen a change of one of the biggest talent shows in the country - The X Factor. The biggest change being the audience's response to the show compared with previous years, with ratings falling the lowest compared to any other season. Now in it's 10th year of production, it seems that even multi-millionaire of the once successful talent show Simon Cowell has ditched his idea and stayed as far away from it as possible. Sensibly, he's stayed in the US and helped their version of the show gain popularity as let's be honest, Americans are better singers than us Brits.

The first noticeable change happened during the audition stages of the show. When the show begun back in 2004, contestants had to sing in front of the four judges in a room. After the Susan Boyle breakdown on Britain's Got Talent hit media attention in 2011, show bosses decided to put the pressure on the contestants before the verdict on their singing was even made by making them perform in front of a 3,000 strong audience in Wembley Arena. This year saw a mash up of both types of audition. If contestants were successful in the room auditions, they then automatically progressed to the arena. The boot camp used a seat approach in which the successful contestants would take a seat if they got through to judge's houses. This of course meant that the judges put through one too many people in their seating area meaning one of the more deserving acts had to forfeit their place for a mediocre act.

Once the judges put through the completely wrong people, the live shows begun, where everyone knew from the off that one of the over 25's would be the first to go. Lorna Simpson then slammed the show for making her dress old to loose appeal from the audience, which I believe to be true. A week later, fellow Over 25 Shelley Smith was booted off the show (no surprise there). The only Over 25 still standing is Sam Bailey and for the sake of the show, I hope she never leaves.

Sam Bailey is the only contender in this year's competition who has a strong enough voice to sell records once the show has drawn to a close for another year. Each week, her range will adapt depending on the theme and will give the performance of her life. She is the judges's "one to beat", however, it's not down to them who wins the metaphorical trophy at the end of the year. Being an Over 25 automatically lowers your success rate in the competition. Although she has the best voice by far in the competition, the younger, less powerful acts are the same age as the target audience, therefore meaning more votes are cast for them.

As I was watching the Week 5 live show yesterday, Sam Callahan's performance really caught my eye, and not because of his appalling vocals. All four of the judges cannot say anymore about his performances than "great effort Sam" or "you try hard week on week". Sam's dad even slated Gary on his outburst of some quite outrageous but sadly accurate comments on last week's show. If the judges can only comment on Sam's personality and effort level, which in fairness to the lad is pretty high, then shouldn't the British public be questioning why he was even put into the live finals in the first place? Especially when the judge being the most honest about his performance is the only judge worthy of judging people on their singing talent as he is the only one who knows the profession inside out being both a singer and a music producer.

Sam Callahan's Week 4 Final Performance - Comments are pretty brutal

I think to call the X Factor a 'singing competition' anymore is a lie within itself. I highly rate the X Factor for producing some of the biggest and most successful acts in the world in past seasons - Leona Lewis, One Direction, Little Mix and new comers to the charts, last year's fourth place, Union J. Many of the most successful contestants post X Factor were the runner ups in the show and missed out on the £1 million record deal with Simon Cowell's record label. Every year that the show has been running have shown slight hints of favoritism from the judges and there is always a joke act to "keep the ratings up" and "add entertainment factor". This year shows this more than any other that the show is only really about one thing - charisma. If you have appeal to the young target audience then you're a sure fire winner, despite having the weakest voice of the whole competition. It also helps if you have a strong following of teenage fans on social networking sites to get your votes up.

I don't have a favourite this year but if Sam Callahan wins on personality, I think show bosses really need to consider the entire purpose of the show.