X Factor 2007, painful showoffs, blah blah blah

Leon is either desperate for a piss or he's about to have an epileptic fit.

i actually really liked that song.

leon's

Yeah I was feeling it.

He looks like he's aged ten years.

Awful song choices tonight, for the most part. This household voted for JLS and Diana.

Awful and obvious choices. Eoghan particularly, as well as JLS. Although I think that this week it's going to be Girlband in the bottom two. They almost needed a Jarvis Cocker lookalike to come on stage and moon at them.
As for the others... ALEXANDRIA! IS! JUST! SHOUTING! BUT! THAT! IS! NOT! WHAT! SINGING! LIKE! WHITNEY! IS! ABOUT!
Austin is this year's Rhydian, except even more irritating.
And Rachel reminds me of Adeva, which is actually a good thing, my favourite performance of tonight.

Yeah, as bad as Scott and Daniel are/were, Girlband are in a class by themselves.

haha, that version of Billie Jean, OMGWTF x 1000000000000000

prediction: Girlband screw up the harmonies on "Don't Wanna Miss A Thing"

Well, OK, so they didn't...

They didn't a lot of things...

I don't like MJackson's stuff, but boy did I appreciate his talents after seeing all those people sing less well and dance insignificantly to his songs!

Having never watched X Factor before, I'm thoroughly enjoying it this year.

(xpost) same with Girls Aloud - their performance on Saturday was only average, but they still wiped the floor with Girlband and JLS.

The new Girls Aloud single now reminds me of the Polyphonic Spree. But not as promising (ahem) as that sounds.

Eoghan was pure eurgh and Ricky Gervais was like an uncalled for missing link between Val Doonican and Billy MacKenzie (if only) but they'll survive because of The Sympathy/Underdog Vote; Eoghan definitely, Ricky for another week or two at least.

Lot of hamming and stupid choices for covers and enough of these stupid 1975 "dance routines."

Generally Michael Jackson Week was a bad idea. How about a Gary Numan Week to make up for it?

Cowell not remembering the names of the contestants - is this deliberate?

My picks - Diana and Rachel but they both need better material.

I think he was genuinely embarassed: At first he bluffed a "excuse me" but later apologised properly, and made damn sure he referred to his (auto)/cue cards which he had obviously been ignoring, previously.

'Came out of character' as it were...

I definitely agreed with his "sorry Girlband, you were robbed, yr mentor was shit" assessment though.

He forgot Ruth's name last week because he was leering over her breasts, not sure about Rachel (although she was singing Dirty Diana so maybe that did it).

I don't get the Daniel=Ricky Gervais comparisons, he looks more like Jim Davidson.

Louis insisting on pronouncing Gervais as Gervay was annoying.

He giggles exactly like him as well...

I worry that JLS may be in trouble tonight.

(which is ridiculous, considering Daniel, Scott, and Eoghan are still in)

I think that Daniel and Laura will be in the bottom two this week. Also the judges will force another DEADLOCK ("It's DEADLOCK!!!" sayeth O'Leary, DUN DUN! go the drums) because no-one wants to be the bogeyman.

Yeah fuck the deadlock that's so LAME.

there's no way Laura will be in the bottom two.

after initially hating on Diana, i have to say i liked her the last two weeks but this week was contrived and irritating.

my top three were Alexandra (amazing performance), Rachel (about time but LOL she obviously HATES Danni) and Ruth. it's basically all about the women this year. Ruth is in the worst position because she has no regional support.

JLS were terrible. as bad as Daniel, and that's really saying something!

Yeah I know, but they're usually so good. I blame Louis. It's a really good year for women--I love Diana, Rachel, Laura, and Alexandra. Ruth was great great great tonight but has no future on this show.

i agree about ruth, sadly. she will survive this week though.

eyoughwan and austin both crepe the fck out of me.

At any given moment, if Austin is

• not performing, and
• conscious

I didn't think that Diana's performance was too bad. She's slowly moving towards an individual singing style and away from this Eva Cassidy/Dido template. At least she isn't trying to sound like Whitney. Seconded on this being a good year for the women - Laura and Alexandra would be up at the top in previous years, but they're put in the shade by Rachel and Ruth. I don't think lack of regional support will make any difference to Ruth's chances - it didn't seem to make a whole lot of difference to the Leon/Rhydian final last year.

Also, Austin looks more like he's about to start blubbing. Any worse and Dermot's going to have to lay out a hanky on his shoulder to stop his suit getting wet. And this is what Austin is like when he does well...

disgraceful

Are JLS the only male act who haven't cried onscreen yet?

Including Daniel's fake-blubbing (followed by being fine 3 seconds later), that is.

Utter pish

eh, Daniel was worse over all, but I can't say I was unhappy to see Scott go. I find him a lot more hateable.

Louis' crying outdid the lot of them. Daniel had a full team of wild horses pulling at the collective heartstrings there though, didn't he? He should maybe think about making something of his backstory though, in case anyone didn't know what it was.

Meanwhile Scott looked like he'd just been sentenced to break rocks in a convict labour camp.

He had the 'I ain't got a dead wife' blues. I thought he was gonna lash out, not start crying though.

Yeah, I thought he was going to start shouting and swearing...
Dermot: "Go on Scott, say something. Cheer up mate. Is there something you want to say?"
Scott: "Er, yeah... FUCK YOU ALL YOU MOTHERFUCKERS, ESPECIALLY YOU COWELL YOU SQUARE HEADED DICK SLOPPER!!!"

Walsh's blubbing actually seemed more like an attack of gas than anything else. This really is going to be the year that everyone on X Factor cries at the drop of a hat. I blame the presence of 90's new man O'Leary. You'd never get this happening with Kate-what's-her-face presenting, but then she is an android or some kind of emotionless alien. So everyone this year will cry, except eternal cynic Cowell and stone faced Dannii (note to self, never play poker against that woman).

Dermot: "Go on Scott, say something. Cheer up mate. Is there something you want to say?"
Scott: "No"

"Actually Yes.." (takes mic..)

was where I thought it was going to kick off....

Basically, when he saw he was bottom two with Daniel, his face was "That's it, I'm fucked"

So much for no more weepathon.

Maybe O'Leary ought to be replaced with someone a bit more hard headed and realistic, like Theo Paphitis. "No, Scott, your singing is less attractive to me. Than. A. Fort. Night's. Holiday. In. Afghanistan" and all that sort of thing.

I have no wish to have a go at Daniel in the sense that I have no wish to have a go at people who've been through the same thing as me but to me it looks like he's currently in the same state of ardent self-denial I was in circa 2003/4. And the constant note-missing/point-missing of his "Lady Is A Tramp" was somewhat annoying.

Rachel technically and emotionally the best this week, Diana the most individual of the voices but I'm not sure she was paying much attention to what she was actually singing ("Smile").

JLS - great suits, great choreography, atonal voices and not in a Lennox Berkeley way.

It was right that Scott went, though, twittering "That's Life" in the mode of someone who knows nothing about life, but clearly that's Louis' fault for picking the wrong song.

Also, a modest reality show proposal: ban all contestants named "Austin" 'cos the Strictly Come Dancing one is equally irritating.

I missed the main show, but saw the 'results' play out (So, scott next week to be the most miserable man ever to be number one at the same time?)

I did think of you when Daniel did his "This was" monologue prep, I would say it's more that time of "anything I do it doesn't matter" hopelessness. It's going to end up a couple years down the line where he has a fir to middling singing career he doesn't actually want anymore, reliving his lost partner for Cabaret audiences.

Didn't someone do this also, made an album of their dead husband/boyfriend's songs, produced by 2 of Steely Dan, album got nowhere, she then did her own songs and did rather better?

(xpost thankfully, not watching it, it doesn't apply)

Cowell's fault, not Louis', with Scott's song choice.

Scott looked utterly defeated as soon as he realised it was him and Daniel. I hope Daniel goes next week.

I would have actually liked Ruth to do (whatever it was she sang) in Spanish on Saturday, I think it could have been good.

I think Alexandra and Laura are the best of the women, but it's close; Rachel and Diane are both awesome too. Rachel needs consistency and discipline.

JLS looked very weak. I could see them going if they don't do something very good next week.

Austin can sing, and work a crowd, but by god every time he's on camera otherwise I want to slap him.

Eoghan or whatever is just the CBeebies version of Daniel O'Donnell, but no one will say anything bad about him because he's so ickle and sweet. Uergh. No range.

They're going to be doing a "ringtones" theme week shortly. Eoghan's doing "I may be small" by Sweety the chick.

(xxp)

As regards Daniel, what I hope is that he manages to find a new partner/wife as a result of doing this. That someone he never knew existed sees him on TV, or maybe even in cabaret a couple of years down the line, and connects with him in a way that no one else can. And he has children, so I suspect the day-to-day busy-ness of bringing them up will go some way towards alleviating the pain he evidently still feels.

I don't think he's going to win, and I suspect he probably will go next week unless JLS really do pull off an epic fail.

But, you know, good luck to him, whatever he does.

As long as he uses the love he has from his past to help build himself a future, he'll be OK. It'll take time but it will happen.

Who in god's name is voting for Daniel?