So, the reality show season in Britain is well and truly done. Joe won ‘The X Factor’ (and who completely liked him early on?), Gino is King of the Jungle, and, um, someone won on “Strictly Come Dancing”, right? Sorry. Can’t love every show.
Joe is probably the best “X Factor” pick for a long time, and was logical. He had a whole region of England voting for him. Talent-wise, Danyl and Jamie were on par, but Danyl annoyed half the nation and the rest were watching Jedward instead of Jamie. There were a lot of people on Twitter who only watched the final to see Jedward again. And me, who watched for Robbie Williams.
Speaking of which, the Mirror would like to make me think he’s going to be a panelist next year. If it happens, I’ll be gobsmacked. That would be the first accurate “speculation” about the show’s future beyond Simon Cowell wanting more of everything. But I don’t think Danni will be back, and I personally will miss her.
(And since Radio 1 is doing their “Best of the Noughties” programmes, can we make a Worst list and put combining the names of celebrity couples and double acts on it and ban it? What would have happened if Ant and Dec had come along after that trend started.? Anc? Dent? PJuncan?)
Speaking of whom, I really enjoyed “I’m A Celebrity” a lot more than last year. There was one week of Jordan (who was actually less annoying in the jungle, and I can see why I used to like her a long time ago) and then after a week of pure awesomeness by the British public in making her do seven Bushtucker Trials in a row, she was gone and had dumped her boyfriend live on British telly. Massively cold.
And then George Hamilton started standing out, because he was an old-Hollywood Christopher Biggins, and by the time he was gone most of the boring ones were gone. Gino, Kim (who really did try to clean the jungle) and Jimmy did the hard work and came out on top. Justin was as close as we’re going to get to how John Barrowman would be like as a contestant, and Stu and Sabrina, well, spent a lot of time talking about how they weren’t a couple.
One of the things I liked best this year were ITV’s full use of new media in the show. They were reading Tweets and answering chatroom questions during the ITV2 after-show. And their Cover-It-Live chats were incredible. I actually do that stuff for a living, and that was a really fun crowd. Even Alan Carr showed up one day!
Ant and Dec’s jokes are so obvious that I saw them coming one to two minutes into the preceding SOT. But they are still funny because they manage to always come up with a new twist. There was a segment where Ant brings Dec tea and then presses his jeans that has to be in their 10-year IAC documentary next year (you really need to do one, guys.) This is my favorite show that they present…
…Until the “Britain’s Got Talent” auditions come around again in the winter. As far as I know, that and “Dancing on Ice” get started after all the Christmas specials. Catherine Tate as Nan again? David Tennant’s Doctor bidding adieu while Tennant drops in on Tate and on QI? Ant and Dec and Robbie Williams in a special?!? No one knows how to give me a Christmas gift like the BBC and ITV do.
Author Info - I'm a Brit at heart but was somehow accidentally born in a tiny town in southern Tennessee. I've wandered around a lot, mostly due to my career in new media for local TV stations, I currently live in the Midwest and use my TARDIS to watch British TV - more than American, really. Basically, anything with a panel show is probably a fave. I seem to get therapy out of hearing British comedians rant. Also love Britcoms and, of course, Doctor Who and Torchwood. Read more from this author
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dream of living in the UK a reality.
I actually never though Danyl was nearly as good as people made him out to be, Cheryl was correct and there were some parts of a lot of his performances that were out of tune. He always got the big notes, but the notes in between were usually iffy. I also think he lacked good vocal technique in general, he slurred his words so much that if they weren’t familiar songs nobody would have a clue what he was singing about. He was so focused on his own voice he didn’t think about actually enunciating and the importance of words in a song.
I agree Joe is definitely the best choice in a long time, and he was the natural choice. I liked Olly, but it would have been wrong for him to win when Joe really spanked him in the final.
I think one thing Danyl had a problem with is that he never seemed to get much better than he was in his audition. Maybe it was his way of rebelling against Simon’s song choices and it seemed like they switched his songs at the last minute every week. I just thought he might come through and be a new Will Young. But he doesn’t have Will’s vocals at all.
On the other hand, Joe showed growth each week and was always uptone. And as much as it pains me to say much nice about Cheryl Cole, she knows how to pick songs.