X Factor 2012

I know I should know better than to enjoy watching X Factor, but I can't help it. I don't watch soaps as I find them 'unrealistic', complain about Big Brother being lazy TV, and find the cheesy, camp glitz and glamour of Strictly a complete turn off. We all know whoever wins this year is unlikely to change the world or cause a musical revolution (although the One-Direction effect seems to have made a profound impact on pop music), they are more likely to fade into the background as the public forget about why it was they cared so much about them.  So why do I love X Factor, a programme which contains elements of all these aspects which define 'bad TV'?

I think part of it is that reality TV like this is so easily de-constructed  I delight in finding out which acts have been 'scouted', who had a previous life as a backing singer on a 90s house record, who was told to sing a certain way and whose reaction was scripted. The TV snob in me enjoys the fact that so many people believe that reality TV is in fact just that, whilst I rejoice in spotting another flaw or slip up.

However, it would be a lie to say I only watch it because I enjoy judging the programme's viewers. I genuinely enjoy the ridiculous characters (such as Rylan Clarke, this year's 'novelty' contestant), and the rags to riches sob stories. I find myself berating the contestants such as Jade Ellis who are constantly telling us how hard it is to be a mum or dad (it's not, people have been doing it for years, love) and the 'I'm doing this for my 'insert generic dead relative here'' contestants who burst into tears every time they reach a key change. I love gossiping about the contestants as if I know them, shamelessly looking them up on Wikipedia or checking the Daily Mail website for scandalous updates. For these few months a year, I am a girl obsessed, live-tweeting each show and filling my TiVo with episodes of 'The Xtra Factor' (mainly to gawp at Caroline Flack's unashamed flirting).

It's TV with a fantastically simple formula, which remains relatively popular 12 years after 'Pop Stars' was first introduced. Although viewing figures inevitably fall each year, they are far from 'dwindling'. The fact that I forget the winner's name as soon as they've stopped being Christmas number one, and the fact that who wins really makes no difference to me I haven't bought a pop single since I was about 9 (something I imagine I share with a lot of the shows viewers) is irrelevant. Its the spectacle, the celebrity and the power of the modern freak-show which keeps me coming back year after year, not the music.