A few years ago, Simon Cowell was intimating he could take over the world. Now the makeup of his show is beginning to suggest a total withdrawal from it. Increasingly staffed by former X Factor contestants, it is an almost perfectly self-contained light-entertainment ecosystem – The Glass Bead Game of synthetic pop.
Perhaps instead of the MacGuffin of the recording contract, which always seems to end up being terminated within six months anyway, X Factor contestants could simply compete for the chance to present or judge the show next year? After all, even the synthetic pop is beginning to feel extraneous. “Personally,” opines the departing Louis Walsh, “I believe viewers are sick of all the singing.”
