It’s The Gong Show’s fault.
It started this whole stupid trend of singing competition reality TV shows…

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I see it this way:

The Gong Show begat Pop Starz.
Pop Starz begat Pop Starz: The Rivals.
Pop Starz: The Rivals begat Pop Idol.
Pop Idol begat American Idol.
Pop Idol also begat The X Factor.

And so on and so forth, ’til the end of eternity.

But The X Factor is the current (British) iteration of this format, so I’ll focus my sights on that.

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WHY is it so popular?

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people turn up to sing a Whitney Huston song, get verbally mauled by the judges, and sent on their way as Snow Patrol’s Run plays over their exit.

Later on, it’s the LIVE SHOWS!

By this point, a dozen “finalists” stumble through 2 month’s worth of crying, panalist fall-outs, press speculation, pop banality and ludicrous histrionics.

Come December, we finally get our winner: Ms. Mariah Carey-clone, or Mr. Smarmy Bargain-Bin-Sinatra, who’ll annoy us for a year, then disappear forever…