The big turn off: X Factor sleaze driving away viewers
THE judges are looking for acts with The X Factor. But if Sunday night’s show was any indication, perhaps it’s more The X-rated Factor.
The ITV talent show faces a string of complaints after it allowed a stripper’s audition to be shown before the watershed.
In a separate episode it focused on the humiliation of two teenagers who squirmed with embarrassment as their mother performed a dreadful rendition of a Lady Gaga song.
Ofcom, the media regulator, was yesterday under growing pressure to investigate the two programmes after a backlash from viewers.
It said it had received ‘a number’ of complaints about Sunday’s explicit act and 30 about the treatment of the teenagers.
Rating figures for The X Factor have dropped to under eight million, down by over two million on last year, suggesting that viewers have tired of the same tawdry antics.
Many were horrified on Sunday night’s show when stripper and Britney Spears impersonator Lorna Bliss appeared on stage before 9pm, when many children would have been watching, wearing a lime-green bikini and fishnet body stocking.
The 33-year- old blonde gyrated before startled judge Louis Walsh before chasing fellow judge Gary Barlow through the audience while singing the Britney song Dancing Till The World Ends.
Weeks earlier, many viewers complained after a 14-year- old girl and 16- year- old boy were repeatedly filmed looking horrified at their mother’s awful audition on the show.
Contestant Alison Brunton, 51, described herself as having a voice like Madonna before singing the Lady GaGa hit The Edge of Glory on the September 1 episode.
Guest judge and Spice Girl Mel B said the performance was ‘ horrific’ while Walsh said her audition was ‘a bit like somebody drunk at a wedding’. It was clear that Miss Brunton’s children were anxious about her decision to take part in the show, looking worried and embarrassed during the ear-splitting performance.
Viewers were also uncomfortable. One wrote on Twitter: ‘Watching The X-Factor, oh no I feel sorry for those two teenage kids.
‘The humiliation!!’ Another said: Oh X-Factor, you are so cruel.’
Last night Ofcom spokesman Rhys Hurd said the watchdog was assessing the complaints and deciding whether to investigate.
Ofcom, which announced a crackdown on sleaze in pre-watershed programmes last year, has also written to ITV asking whether the welfare and dignity of Miss Bruton’s children had been considered on the show.
An ITV spokesman said: ‘ The X Factor is a well- established format and contestants regularly bring along their family to support them as Alison did.
Footage of family members is only used when appropriate consent has been obtained.’