Christmas Quiz: today’s winner is @BeccaJW
Rebecca Wheeler (@BeccaJW) is our winner today! She correctly identified that Rihanna is the umbrella-loving pop star who shared the stage with X Factor winner Matt Cardle at the weekend. As nobody answered yesterday’s question correctly, Rebecca wins two prizes – a luxury Christmas pudding and a stocking.
Congratulations Rebecca from all the team at Speed!
Speed Quiz: And the winner is.. @ashswindells
Aisling Swindells (@ashswindells) has won Speed’s weekly quiz. She correctly identified that John and Edward Grimes were 17 when they shot to fame on The X Factor. Aisling wins a case of wine!
Follow @speedcomms and every Friday at midday we’ll tweet a question. To take part simply send an @ reply with your answer. The winner will be randomly chosen at the end of the day and will be announced on the Speed Blogs and on Twitter on the following Monday morning.
Click here to find out a bit more about our weekly competition.
X-Factor General ElectionsI don’t follow the X-Factor I’m afraid. I don’t have any hatred towards its concept or its contestants, I just don’t care. However, I am amazed at its ability to get people really motivated, passionate and ultimately political!
Since ‘the twins’ were saved and some poor Welsh lass was given the boot, I have received no less than 5 invitations to Facebook groups demanding that I boycott X-Factor and highlighting the dubious judgement of Simon Cowell. This was combined with a few tweets echoing the disappointment of a nation and I even received a text message about it.
All this political activity! Hordes of people ready to stand up for what they believe in. A quick scan of X-Factor groups on Facebook reveals hundreds of thousands of people, organised into various allegiances, discussing the pros and cons of each contestant and declaring that they will be picking up the phone and casting their vote!
And then we hear that the younger generations of this country are apathetic towards politics. They are not bothered about voting, don’t care who is in charge and see politicians as an annoyance they have to endure in between X-Factor and X-Factor – The Results Show.
So, why not merge the two? Surely we could hold a general election in an X-Factor format? Have a panel of judges (I’m thinking Andrew Marr, Jon Snow, Jeremy Paxman and Cheryl Cole) casting their initial opinions on the candidates and then handing them over for the public vote. Each week the candidates are given a new scenario to solve, like raising education standards, improving the NHS etc. The final face off is a 30 min political debate in front of a live audience.
So there we have it, the natural evolution of X-Factor is for it to be the basis for the UK’s General Election. If that doesn’t get future generations of voters interested then I don’t know what will. Unless of course they incorporate a dance off as well.
Simon, what do you think?Ahhhhhh its come around again. That lovely time of year when you get to sit back on a Saturday night, pour a glass of vino and laugh, cry and cheer at the TV. Yes that’s right people – The X Factor is back. A wooo hooo! Sus and I are both fans. The bit that really gets me is when they go home to their families and tell them if they have made it through to the live shows. Gets me every time. Last year I felt cheated that this news was delivered over the phone. I stopped short of writing to Points of View, but it was a close thing.
I am intrigued to see the new audition format with the live audiences. It should be interesting to see how they react – will they sway a judge’s decision? I once had a conversation with someone who said that shows such as the X Factor were cruel. I believe their argument went that clearly these people weren’t ‘all there’ and therefore it was wrong to laugh at them. I disagree. The problem isn’t that there not ‘all there’, it’s that no one tells them that they suck before they go on national television. I have no desire to have profound conversations about my Saturday night entertainment, all I know is that its back and I love it.
