Westlife Talk about Reality Tv Show
X Factor guru Simon Cowell was facing a growing public backlash yesterday as fans accused him of turning the show into The Fix Factor.
Angry viewers bombarded chatrooms and websites with calls for a boycott of the ITV1 show following Cowell’s decision not to boot out Irish teen twins John and Edward Grimes.
It also emerged that Cowell had earmarked Jedward for stardom long before the series began, boasting about them to Louis Walsh’s pop group Westlife earlier in the year.
Cowell let the public vote decide whether Jedward or 18-year-old Welsh singer Lucie Jones was ousted. Many branded Cowell a ‘hypocrite’.
Others said he had sealed the fate of the doomed ‘talent’ show, branding it as ‘Dead as Big Brother!’.
Among the groups created were the ‘Protest – STOP WATCHING X FACTOR’ group and ‘Simon Cowell is a w***er for saving Jedward! Boycott the XFactor’ group.
‘What a fix! Simon Cowell should be sacked from his own show!’ Jayne, London, said online. ‘Won’t be watching ever again. All that rubbish attributed to Simon Cowell… well the dream is over no more X Factor ever again,’ added Mark Humphries, from Southampton. ‘I thought he is supposed to be a judge. All he cares about is his pocket!! We should all Boycott this Pantomime!!’ wrote Monika, UK.
Many fans were calling for all four judges to be given the chop.
Cowell was desperate to salvage his reputation just minutes after the vote on Sunday when live callers on ITV2’s Xtra Factor show peppered him on air.
Hitting back, he said: ‘I didn’t expect Lucie would lose. It’s not my fault if people in the bottom don’t get enough votes. We have to put it into perspective.’
Westlife singer Mark Feehily told Heat magazine how on a trip to see Cowell in America earlier this year he had shown them a clip of Jedward.
‘Simon was using them to showcase the series before they’d even been picked. People thought Louis was mad to put them through, but even Simon knew they had something,’ he said.
