Boxbusters - The X Factor as Spectacular Reality Event

Basic Issues in Television Studies FI 205: Helen Wheatley 0716794

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BOXBUSTER TELEVISION

THE X FACTOR AS SPECTACULAR REALITY EVENT

The X Factor has become one of the biggest television programmes of the last decade.1 Since its

appearance on ITV in 2004, the brainchild of music and media mogul Simon Cowell has been

responsible for six chart-topping acts, a slew of number one singles and a series of massive ratings

hits for the channel. The format has been exported across the globe, inspired by earlier talent show

successes, Pop Idol and Popstars, and winners such as Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke have gone

on to attain considerable success in their recording careers – not forgetting runners up such as JLS.2

Despite many criticisms in the press and public sphere about Cowell’s domination of the charts and

the effect of the show’s ‘get-famous-quick’ ideology on the music industry, The X Factor shows no

signs of a decline in popularity. In fact, the latest series has proved to be the most popular yet, with

a record peak of over 19 million viewers for the finale.3 Series 6 has also been the most ambitious,

including a live audience at the audition stage and an extended Sunday night results show, featuring

performances from big-name celebrities such as Sir Paul McCartney and Whitney Houston. The

programme has proved to be a lifeline for ITV in the face of falling ratings and advertising revenue,

providing one of the biggest ratings hits of the year for the channel and its best weekend audience

share since 2002.4

The X Factor seems to represent the last bastion of event-viewing family television, of programming

that unites a nation in a shared viewing experience, in a multi-channel landscape that has become

1 The X Factor (UK, Fremantle Media, TalkbackTHAMES & SYCOtv, ITV, tx. 2004- ) 2 Pop Idol (UK, 19 Television, ITV, tx. 2001-3), Popstars (UK, Warner Bros TV, ITV, tx. 2001) 3 Plunkett, John, ‘The X Factor: More than 19m watch Joe McElderry win’ Guardian.co.uk 14/12/09 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/14/x-factor-joe-mcelderry> accessed 20/12/09 4 Thorpe, Vanessa, ‘The X Factor finale gives ITV a bonanza’ Guardian.co.uk 13/12/09 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/dec/13/x-factor-itv-simon-cowell> accessed 14/12/09

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/14/x-factor-joe-mcelderry

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/dec/13/x-factor-itv-simon-cowell


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increasingly niche-driven and saturated with choice. Few serial shows could draw such massive

audience numbers, along with such a sense of excitement and expectation, of the type usually

reserved for national sporting events, such as football world cups. As Vanessa Thorpe reported, ‘the

days when watching TV was a shared national experience, with audiences in tens of millions, are

supposed to be over. But last night, the battle which saw young singers Olly Murs and Joe McElderry

successfully voted through to tonight’s X Factor final proved it is still possible to rewrite the rules.’5

Mark Lawson, too, asks:

How has Cowell’s show rewritten history? The most plausible explanation is that drama

and comedy, which traditionally had cross-generational audiences, have split into

smaller-interest formats often featuring niche material... Yet the desire for a show that

everyone can watch – a Morecambe and Wise of today – seems to have survived. The X

Factor may not always obey the traditional rules of family viewing, but, in general, it has

become a rare example of an entertainment which the oldest and youngest members of

a family are not embarrassed to watch together.6

This essay intends to explore The X Factor as an example of ‘Boxbuster’ television – programming

which features many of the same draws as blockbuster cinema, for example, high production values

and revenue, star names, spectacle, excess, and eventfulness, but provides them in a format specific

to the medium of television. These programmes utilise many classical elements of television

programming, including liveness, eventfulness, spectacle and co-presence, whilst also embracing the

potential of modern theories such as media-convergence, second-shift aesthetics, user flows and

reality programming, to create a uniquely televisual experience attracting large scale audiences. In

an age of ever-increasing choice, not only in programming but also in the ways in which television is

consumed, ‘Boxbusters’ like The X Factor are attempting to draw family audiences back to schedule

viewing in their own homes by providing spectacular, but specifically televisual, entertainment-

reality events, in much the same way that blockbusters attempted to attract people back to the

cinema in the 1970s.

5 Thorpe, Vanessa, ‘The X Factor finale gives ITV a bonanza’ 6 Lawson, Mark, ‘X Factor Final: Joe wins, but its Cowell who has mastered the fickle arts’ Guardian.co.uk 14/12/09 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/dec/14/review-mark-lawson-x-factor> accessed 15/12/09.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/dec/14/review-mark-lawson-x-factor


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One of the key elements contributing to The X Factor’s popularity is its liveness, a factor which is also

crucial to the program’s air of eventfulness. Many television scholars have discussed the unique

capacity of television to transmit live images to an audience, citing liveness as one of the defining

characteristics of the medium. Paddy Scannell’s theories revolve around the use of liveness as a tool

to recreate the feeling of being present at an event for the home viewer, to ‘proximate its

eventfulness for those who are not there’.7 He states that:

The liveness of broadcast coverage is key to its impact, since it offers the real sense of

access to an event in its moment-by-moment unfolding. This presencing, this re-

presenting of a present occasion to an absent audience, can powerfully produce the

effect of being-there, of being involved (caught up) in the here-and-now of the occasion.8

Scannell concludes that it is precisely this sense of liveness that marks an occasion as eventful. He

argues that the authenticity of liveness goes some way to restoring the aura which Walter Benjamin

claims is lost in mechanical reproduction; ‘The aura of presence is that edged halo of expectation and

anticipation that includes the build-up to an occasion and that runs right through to its conclusion.’9

For The X Factor, liveness is vital in encouraging people to pick up the phone and vote; by creating a

sense of being-there, of being a part of an event that is unfolding before the viewer, and which they

have the power to change, as well as a sense of authenticity evident in the contestants’ live

performances, the show ensures that people become involved in the fates of the contestants, and

thus feel the need to register their votes. This sense of eventfulness is emphasised by the presence

of a live audience, whose simultaneous viewing of the show from the studio parallels that of the

viewer at home. In his discussion of early live television drama, Lez Cooke describes the unique

appeal of watching a program, ‘subject to all the possible pitfalls and unknown outcomes of a live

performance.’ The drama of unpredictability plays an essential role in The X Factor; a pre-recorded

broadcast would, no doubt, not be nearly as affective and engaging as a live performance; there

would not be the same sense of an ‘ever-present danger of being on the edge of the possibility of

7 Scannell, Paddy. Radio, Television and Modern Life (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), p. 80 8 Ibid, p. 84, (emphasis Scannell’s) 9 Ibid, p. 90-1


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going wrong, of the event being, in some way, derailed… that creates an underlying mood of

excitement and anticipation: will it, won’t it, come off?’10 It is almost impossible to predict how each

performance will go, how the judges will react, the results of the public vote or who will be left to

fight for their place in the competition. In the latest series,

Calvin Harris provided plenty of fuel for newspapers and

gossip magazines alike as he stormed the stage during John

and Edward’s performance of Under Pressure, in protest

over the supposedly detrimental effects he felt the

competition was having on the music industry.11 The live

nature of the show means that anything is possible and,

thus, none of the contestants are safe; there is no second chance if a line is forgotten, a note missed,

or a dance step fluffed. The human element and the value of the prize also emphasize this situation;

There is always an element of human risk or daring in any human, social occasion, the

measure of whose success is offset against the known possibilities of how far it might

have failed. The greater the aspiration, the greater the calamity of failure. And, of course,

the greater the triumph if it succeeds.12

Mistakes are not only embarrassing, but could cost the contestants their place in the competition,

and, thus, their chance of winning the £1 million recording contract. This danger, enhanced by the

liveness of the broadcast, encourages viewers to tune in week after week and make the effort to

support their favourite contestant throughout the competition.

John Ellis’s notions of liveness centre on the process of unifying a nation of viewers through a sense

of co-presence; ‘*television+ provided *viewers+ with a sense of togetherness in separation with their

fellow audience members’ and created, ‘a direct and intimate link’ between the television and the

10 Scannell, Radio, Television and Modern Life, p. 84 11 Quoted in ‘Calvin Harris defends X Factor stunt’ Telegraph.co.uk 16/11/09 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/x-factor/6582073/Calvin-Harris-defends-X-Factor-stunt.html> accessed 03/02/10 12 Scannell, Radio, Television and Modern Life, p. 84

Figure 1: The Drama of unpredictability - Calvin Harris storms John and Edward's stage

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/x-factor/6582073/Calvin-Harris-defends-X-Factor-stunt.html



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viewer.13 The X Factor’s liveness works in much the same way as that which Ellis identifies in sport

broadcasting. He declares that, ‘the best way to see a football match, a horse race, or any other

competitive event is as it happens, before the result is known,’ describing sport narratives as, ‘full of

conflict and uncertainty, yet with the certainty of an ending.’14 A sense of liveness and insecurity is

essential to the competitive narrative of The X Factor. The ratings for Sunday night results shows

during series 6 were consistently higher than those of the main show each week, suggesting that the

thrill of the uncertainty surrounding who would leave the competition encouraged people to tune in

live and watch the drama unfold.15 Mimi White discusses media events as, ‘dramas of celebration,

social integration and loyalty to a larger society.’16 The X Factor fits this model in the drama it creates

in the fight for the prize, and in the important role audience participation plays in the show, both in

the studio and at home. The programme also aids social integration in its cross-generational appeal

and family-friendly content; the show provides an eclectic mix of music through its themed weeks,

for example, covering everything from old-fashioned big band and show tunes through to rock

anthems and popular number one hits. The use of age-defined groups helps to ensure that there are

a wide range of contestants with which different audience members can identify; often, there is an

act whose appeal lies with a much younger audience (John and Edward, Eoghan Quigg, Same

Difference) as well as teenage heart-throbs (Joe McElderry, JLS, Shayne Ward) and the more mature

over-25 category (Ruth Lorenzo, Steve Brookstein, Andy Abraham). The contestants also cover a

wide range of musical genres and tastes, from the rocky edge of Jamie Archer through to the

operatic styles of Rhydian Roberts and G4, the R’n’B tones of JLS and Alexandra Burke, the swing and

rat-pack influences of Ray Quinn, and the pop style of Leona Lewis and Joe McElderry. White

discusses the similarities of television to the early cinema of attractions, which is, ‘characterised by

13 Ellis, John. Seeing Things: Television in the Age of Uncertainty (London: I.B. Tauris, 2002), pp. 31-2 14 Ibid, pp. 32, 121 15 Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board, ‘Weekly Top 10 Programmes: ITV1’ 05/10-13/12/09 <http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammes?> accessed 03/02/10 16 White, Mimi. 'The attractions of television: Reconsidering liveness' in Couldry and McCarthy ed. MediaSpace: Place, Scale and Culture in a Media Age (London: Routledge, 2004), p. 80

http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammes?


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an absence of diegesis, fundamental discontinuity and an emphasis on spectacle for its own sake.’17

These attributes are evident in The X Factor; the program’s reality status negates the existence of

diegesis, whilst the discrete and disparate musical numbers are discontinuous and spectacular.

White also discusses the aesthetics of the shopping channel, which bear a striking resemblance to

the presentation of the contestants on The X Factor; ‘products *are+ accompanied by graphic titles

that [provide] information for the viewers about the item, product code, number, price, the toll-free

number to call for purchase, and so on... a succession of visual attractions... to encourage viewers to

buy what they [see].’18 The recap sequences exemplify all these elements; the highlights of each

performance are shown in quick succession, accompanied by graphics which feature the name of the

contestant, the name and face of their respective mentor

and the number required to vote for that contestant. The

performer is here transformed into a commodity through

the use of ‘visual attractions’ intended to entice viewers

to vote, and thus to buy-in to the X Factor brand and

experience.

The X Factor’s place in ITV’s weekend schedule confirms its status as primetime entertainment

programming, and, as such, it can be seen to feature much of the utopianism which Richard Dyer

identifies as a trait of entertainment. Dyer claims that:

Entertainment offers the image of “something better” to escape into, or something we

want deeply that our day-to-day lives don’t provide. Alternatives, hopes, wishes – these

are the stuff of utopia, the sense that things could be better, that something other than

what is can be imagined and realized.19

This description goes some way to describing the basic appeal of The X Factor, which allows ordinary

people to compete in the hope of winning their dream recording contract and celebrity lifestyle. The

processes of escape and wish-fulfilment are dramatized in the contestants’ real life narratives,

17 White, ‘The attractions of television’, p. 85 18Ibid, p. 86 19 Dyer, Richard. Only Entertainment (London: Routledge, 2002), p. 20

Figure 2: Performer as commodity - shopping channel aesthetics


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presented as ‘sob-stories’ during the audition process, or in the video sections shown before their

live performances. The show itself embodies the five main qualities of utopia which Dyer details:

abundance is evident in the £1 million recording contract offered as a prize; energy and intensity are

both manifest in the performances themselves, accompanied by music, dancers and pyrotechnics;

transparency is suggested in the talking-head video sections before each performance, where the

contestants describe their emotions and progression through the show, and in one-on-one

interviews featured in sister show The Xtra Factor, and community is palpable in the group

performances which open each results show in the latest series, featuring the week’s remaining

contestants.20 The utopia of the show is contrasted with the scarcity, exhaustion and dreariness

made apparent in the video sections depicting the contestants’ real-life stories. This contrast

embodies the ‘essential contradiction’ which Dyer identifies in musicals between the narrative and

the numbers; the narrative depicts ‘the way the world is, drawing on the audience’s concrete

experience of the world’, whilst the numbers point to ‘how things could be better’, that is, what life

would be like if the contestants won the competition and were granted a recording contract.21 This

utopian dialectic provides a source of pleasure for the viewers; in describing ‘quality’ television

dramas, Dyer explains, ‘whilst most people could not afford to live as the characters in qualities do,

it is just about possible to imagine being able to’.22 Kellner picks up on the same themes; ‘media

culture... provides ever more material for fantasy, dreaming, modelling thought and behaviour, and

constructing identities.’23 Thus, the audience at home can imagine, through the ordinary people they

see transformed into popstars in the competition, that they too can attain fame and fortune and

transform their lives to achieve their dreams.

The X Factor’s event status is accentuated by the show’s spectacular nature, especially in the latest

series. The extension of the results show to an hour long slot on Sunday evening provided much

20 Dyer, Only Entertainment, p. 26. The Xtra Factor (UK, ITV2, Fremantle Media, tx. 2004- ) 21 Ibid, p. 27 22 Ibid, p. 15 23 Kellner, Douglas. 'Media culture and the triumph of the spectacle' in King ed. The Spectacle of the Real: from Hollywood to Reality TV and Beyond (Bristol: Intellect Books, 2005), p. 25


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more scope for presenting an evening of spectacular entertainment. The structure of the results

show generally included an opening group performance, featuring all of the remaining contestants,

followed by a number from a previous contestant or star associated with the show (Cheryl Cole,

Leona Lewis, JLS), and headlining with a performance from a well-established celebrity star,

including, among others, the massive names of Robbie Williams, Whitney Houston and Janet

Jackson. That the show managed to feature so many huge stars from the world of music, week on

week, is testament to its popularity. The X Factor is now the only primetime outlet for artists to

showcase their new material to a family audience, since the cancellation of Top of the Pops.24

Although many artists still appear on shows such as Friday Night with Jonathon Ross, the much

earlier slot allows The X Factor to appeal to a younger audience as well, and to much larger

numbers.25 These star performances provide masses of spectacle and entertainment value, featuring

extensive dance routines (as in Cheryl Cole’s Fight for this Love), ornate sets (Lady Gaga appeared in

a giant bath, whilst Fergie from the Black Eyed Peas

performed on a suspended crescent moon), elaborate

costumes (Alexandra Burke appeared in full American

football gear) and musical instruments (Bon Jovi and

Alicia Keyes). The aforementioned rise in ratings for

Sunday’s results shows over Saturday’s live

performance shows can perhaps also be attributed to

the draw of these spectacular star performances.

John Thornton Caldwell’s discussion of ‘trash spectacular’ television in 1980s America identifies the

excessive televisual style evident in such programming.26 Through the privileging of style and the use

of cinematic and videographic tropes, ‘trash spectacular’ television attempted to ‘meet the dense

24 Top of the Pops (UK, BBC, tx. 1964-2006) 25 Friday Night with Jonathon Ross (UK, Hotsauce TV for BBC, tx. 2001 - ) 26 Caldwell, John Thornton. Televisuality: Style, Crisis and Authority in American Television (New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1995)

Figure 3: Celebrity Spectacle - Lady Gaga's giant bath set


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onslaught of programming alternatives,’ provided by cable television and a multi-channel

environment.27 Caldwell identifies a move, ‘from a framework that approached broadcasting

primarily as a form of word-based rhetoric and transmission… to a visually based mythology,

framework and aesthetic based on extreme self-consciousness of style.’28 An aesthetic of extreme

excess and the spectacular can be identified in The X Factor; the visual and aural excess of the

performances is clear; backed by dancers, costumes, big-screen graphics, lighting, backing singers

and choirs, musicians, stages and platforms, often punctuated with pyrotechnics and filmed with

rapid, dynamic camera movements, the contestants are placed on an increasingly spectacular

pedestal on which to fight for their place in the competition. These techniques became particularly

apparent and exaggerated in series 6 with the addition of John and Edward, whose lack of vocal

talent required their mentor, Louis Walsh, to provide excessively spectacular performances with the

intention of, and, indeed, becoming fairly successful in, masking the duo’s obviously poor singing

voices and privileging instead their roles as entertainers. Their performance of Ray Parker Jr.’s

‘Ghostbusters’ provides a particularly good example: the duo begins the song sitting behind a large

cut-out of the Ghostbusters car from the movie, complete with flashing red lights, dressed in full

Ghostbuster costume with trademark blonde quiffs. They are then joined by a number of

monstrously costumed dancers, who multiply in

number as the song goes on, many of them

representing characters from the movie itself, such as

the stay-puft man. One dancer even floats over the

stage on an aerial wire. The performance is backed by

graphics played on large screens, featuring lightning

strikes and swirling colours, as well as flashing spotlights and sound effects such as screams, thunder

and buzzing electricity. The number then ends with an ensemble dance routine, reminiscent of

‘Thriller’. Multiple cameras film the sequence, alternating between mid shots of the duo and long

27 Caldwell, Televisuality, p. 9 28 Ibid, p. 4

Figure 4: Trash spectacular - John & Edward's Ghostbusters set


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shots of the whole stage. Static shots are interchanged with pans and tracks that follow the action

and glide around the stage; at one point, a crane shot sweeps from the corner of the studio, above

the audience, all the way down onto the stage. Though there is no denying the spectacular excess of

performances such as this, it does not so much exploit the stylistic worlds of the cinematic or the

videographic which Caldwell identifies as a trope of ‘trash spectacular’ programming.29 Instead, the

spectacular nature of The X Factor performances has more to do with a return to a theatrical style,

which prioritises the performative element, as well as staging, costume, lighting and the presence of

a studio audience. The show is filmed mainly in a proscenium-arch style, where the camera shares

the viewpoint of the studio audience – albeit a more dynamic one privileged with the ability to also

see close-up. White discusses the way in which, ‘space functions as spectacle, a visual attraction

transmitted in the present tense of live television.’30 In this sense, the large, theatrical stage that

provides the contestants with a performance area also functions as another spectacular aesthetic,

adding to the elements of liveness and the sense of a one-time-only event created by the

theatricality of the performances.

The X Factor’s televisual excess does not only apply to its performative spectacle, however; the use

of excessive videographic stylistics is also evident, especially in the video idents which introduce

each performer, following a recap of last week’s events and talking head interviews with the

contestant and the judges. Winner Joe McElderry’s introductory video, for example, features the

contestant standing, silhouetted, in a tunnel of blue lights, overlaid with translucent video images of

his face. This shot then cuts in a flash of blue light to a close-up of Joe’s face, and the sequence cuts

at rapid speed between shot sizes, featuring mid-shots of Joe walking, still frames of his face and

sequences of him singing. These are interspersed with frames of flashing lights and also, at one

point, a black-and-white static photograph of Joe. Images are multi-layered, often using neon blue

filters to tint the pictures, and shots fade into and across each other at rapid speed, accompanied by

29 Caldwell, Televisuality, p. 12 30 White, ‘The attractions of television’, p. 84


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a crescendo of music. Finally, the contestant’s name fills the screen in block white lettering,

accompanied by graphics which mimic the look of the lights in the tunnel, in the same neon-blue

colour. This extremely complex and rich sequence lasts

only around 11 seconds, giving a clear example of the

videographic excess and self-consciousness of style that

Caldwell identifies as a feature of televisuality and the

‘trash spectacular’.

Whilst exemplifying long-standing televisual techniques

such as liveness, co-presence and utopianism, The X Factor

also embraces many of the new potentialities provided by

modern media technology. By adapting to make best use

of the technology available, The X Factor ensures its place

in the modern market, and attempts to create an actively

engaging product which holds its own in a saturated multi-

channel environment and a digital age of media

convergence. Caldwell’s work on second-shift aesthetics

identifies many of the strategies created by media and

television companies to retain viewers in an increasingly

complex and dispersed televisual environment; ‘the new

landscape of convergence has forced content providers to

continue to adapt and overhaul the means and goals of programming in order to succeed in far more

volatile media markets.’31 Television and media outlets must now deal with dispersed texts and,

‘user navigations that can and will inevitably migrate across brand boundaries’, creating a strategy of

31 Caldwell, John T. 'Second-shift media aesthetics: programming, interactivity and user flows’ in Everett and Caldwell ed. New Media: Theories and Practices of Digitextuality (New York: Routledge, 2003), p. 135

Figure 5: Videographic excess - image layering and computer graphics


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‘flow’ controlled by audience use rather than programming.32 As William Uricchio has suggested,

Raymond Williams’ long-standing and influential idea of flow shifts in the digital era from, ‘the

purposeful linkage of variously scaled textual units in order to avoid ruptures,’ to, ‘a set of choices

and actions initiated by the viewer.’33 This involves creating a brand identity that incorporates

‘ancillary and digital sites that users migrate to from a primary or initial site’.34 Though the use of a

traditional sense of flow is evident in the ITV weekend line-up, especially over the finale weekend,

featuring associated lead-in programmes such as Cheryl Cole’s Night In and I Dreamed a Dream: The

Susan Boyle Story, The X Factor also exemplifies second-shift aesthetics in its use of interactive

services, from red-button interfaces and an extensive website featuring multimedia content through

to its ancillary programme The Xtra Factor on the digital channel ITV2.35 Interactivity plays an

important role in the show’s branding, emphasising the audience control over the results of the

competition; red button digital services make it incredibly easy for viewers to vote and encourages

participation in the show, both increasing the revenue gained from voting and viewer loyalty (a

viewer who votes is much more likely to tune in to the results show and to future programs to follow

their chosen contestant). There is also the opportunity to take part in a competition via the red

button or phone lines, giving viewers the chance to win a taste of the lifestyle promised to the

winner of the competition, actively participating in the utopianism and commercialism of the show.

The Xtra Factor sister programme on ITV2 helps to extend and enrich The X Factor experience,

providing behind the scenes snippets, interviews with contestants, judges and celebrity guests, and

games related to the show. This programme goes some way towards defeating the problems

identified by Caldwell in relation to American show The Bachelor, where the losing contestants were

featured by other channels and programmes; ‘many other news and entertainment shows...

solicited and then showcased the banished contestants as part of their own proprietary special

32 Caldwell, ‘Second-shift media aesthetics’, p. 136 33 Uricchio, William. 'Television's next generation: technology/interface culture/flow' in Spigel and Olssen ed. Television After TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), p. 167, 170 34 Caldwell, ‘Second-shift media aesthetics’, p. 136 35 Cheryl Cole’s Night In (UK, ITV, tx. 12/12/09), I Dreamed a Dream: The Susan Boyle Story (UK, TalkbackTHAMES, ITV, tx. 13/12/09)


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segments.’36 By providing an extra programme with exclusive content, The X Factor encourage fans

to stay within the ITV brand, instead of searching for other outlets featuring the contestants and

judges. The extensive website also furthers this defence, featuring exclusive content, catch-up clips

linked with YouTube, and contestant updates, thus acting as the first port-of-call for viewers wishing

to find out more about the competition. Twitter, one of the newest technological trends, provides

interesting new possibilities for real-time viewer comments, a technique which media producer Gary

Hayes has identified as the next step for television media convergence.37 A so-called ‘Twitter storm’

accompanied the latest series of The X Factor, with viewers eager to voice their opinions and

comments about the show; for every weekend of the series, ‘keywords related to the show

[occupied] half of Twitter’s global trending topics and about 5% of worldwide tweets [mentioned]

the finalists’ or judges’ names.’38 Already, social networking technology like Twitter is interacting

with television and providing another site of convergence and dispersal of texts, and, if utilised by

television programmes and channels, could soon provide a brand new viewing experience, again

privileging the role of the viewer over the television scheduler or producer. The X Factor serves as a

sub-brand itself, and the availability of merchandise augments the second-shift aesthetic by,

‘flow*ing+ the viewer outside of any televisual or digital text into the material world of consumerism

proper.’39 Board games, posters, books, t-shirts and charity singles all feature the X Factor brand;

there is even the opportunity to participate in the experience with the annual live tour, featuring all

the finalists performing numbers from the show. In these ways, The X Factor has moved beyond the

aesthetic spectacular and has embraced the potentialities of the digital age to provide an enriched,

all-encompassing experience for the viewer, creating a brand that encourages viewer loyalty and

participation, and which has rewarded ITV with one of its biggest ratings hits of 2009.40

36 Caldwell, ‘Second-shift media aesthetics’, p. 140 37 Quoted in ‘The X Factor marks the start of TV becoming social’ Guardian.co.uk, December 09 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/dec/07/the-x-factor-social-tv> accessed 14/12/09 38 Ibid 39 Caldwell, ‘Second-shift media aesthetics’, p. 137 40 Plunkett, ‘The X Factor: More than 19m watch Joe McElderry win’

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/dec/07/the-x-factor-social-tv


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The X Factor’s engagement with reality television is an interesting relationship. The real life appeal of

the competition and the contestants obviously owes some credit to the succession of reality

television shows featuring ordinary people placed in contrived situations for entertainment value,

such as Channel 4’s Wife Swap and BBC’s Castaway, as well as older traditions of the game show in

which ordinary people are asked to compete for a prize.41 One of the most interesting comparisons,

however, is with makeover shows. In Huff’s discussion of reality television, he identifies common

threads of makeover shows to be;

...the transformation of a person from someone who may not be attractive by current

standards into someone better to look at. The emotional appeal is watching someone

reach their goals, even if they may be superficial, like having a whiter smile. And, there’s

the little-talked-about jeopardy aspect of all makeovers, which... revolves around the risk

the participant takes to be on the show.42

The X Factor features many aspects of the makeover genre, not least in its real-life, ordinary

subjects. Each contestant receives a style makeover between the audition stages and the live shows,

their new, streamlined, popstar look showcased in the video ident played before their

performances. The judges give much attention to the look and style of the performers on stage,

often commenting on it in their feedback. Aside from their appearance, the transformation of each

contestant’s life is also documented, especially in the later stages of the competition. The

performers are invited to return home to their places of work or the school they attended,

contrasting their current lives and emerging career with what they used to be, and asking them to

comment on their journey so far. The X Factor: the Winner’s Story follows the journey of the winning

contestant in detail, documenting how their life has changed and what effect winning the

competition has had on them – the classic ‘transformational “before and after” narrative’ of the

makeover genre.43 Tania Lewis discusses the combination of, ‘the competitive game show element

41 Wife Swap (UK, RDF Media for Channel 4, tx. 2003-09), Castaway (UK, Lion Television for BBC, tx. 2000, 2007) 42 Huff, Richard. Reality Television (London: Praeger, 2006), p. 70 43 Lewis, Tania, ‘Changing rooms, biggest losers and backyard blitzes: A history of makeover television in the United Kingdom, United States and Australia’ Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 22:4 (August


15

of quiz shows with the voyeurism, melodrama and confessional dimensions of talk shows and soaps,’

traits evident in the recording contract prize, the melodramatic close-ups of contestants as they

await the announcement of the voting result, and the confessional talking head video sections

featured before the performances, where each contestant shares his or her thoughts and fears

about the upcoming number.44 In his work on entertainment, Dyer predicts the waning of the genre,

partly due to the influence of ‘reality’ in its many forms. He proposes that;

Entertainment classically dealt in glamour, utopia, the exotic, the extraordinary, the

exceptional, enjoyment through imagining other worlds or ways of being. However,

through the 20th century, people increasingly wanted to take pleasure in people like

themselves, realities like their own… the demystification of stars, no longer seen as

special people but just like you and me.45

The inclusion of makeover threads in reality television, like those evident in The X Factor, however,

suggests a return to the values of glamour and utopia traditionally evident in entertainment. Shows

like The X Factor do not simply depict real life, but intimate a better reality, a more extraordinary

lifestyle that can easily be obtained by ordinary people. Dyer claims that, ‘when pleasure is available

anywhere, any time and looks like everywhere and everyone, the dynamic of escape, foundational to

entertainment, disappears.’46 In the world of The X Factor, however, escape is provided in the

tantalizing prize offered to the contestants, the promise of dream-fulfilment that will take them far

from their ordinary lives; the runner-up of the 2005 series, Andy Abraham, for example, frequently

spoke about his existing life as a dustman, and of his reluctance to return to that life. Whether the

resulting stars shine or burn out is a moot point; it is the promise of escape embodied in a recording

contract that provides much of the entertainment of the program. One important difference

between shows like The X Factor and other reality shows, which Dyer identifies, must be considered;

he describes:

2008), p. 447, The X Factor: The Winner’s Story (UK, ITV2, Fremantle Media, STCO TV & TalkbackTHAMES, 2004 - ) 44 Lewis, Tania, ‘Changing room, biggest losers and backyard blitzes’, p. 448 45 Dyer, Only Entertainment, p. 178 46 Scannell, Radio, Television and Modern Life, p. 178


16

...The collapsing of even the distinction between realism and entertainment… ordinary

people… participate in events staged for and wholly acknowledged as television… the

reality is a reality of television, rather than, as previously, a televisual presentation of a

reality existing and having its raison d’être outside of television.47

It cannot be forgotten that what the contestants experience on the show is not ‘real life’ as we know

it, but a carefully manipulated, contrived and synthetic situation designed to provide spectacular

entertainment for an audience, rather than a fly-on-the-wall perspective of reality.

The X Factor utilises a variety of techniques in order to engage its viewers and draw in massive

audiences, as well as generating substantial revenues from voting, advertising, sponsorship and

merchandising. As a ‘Boxbuster’ it provides a televisual event; the kind which is hotly anticipated and

discussed in the press throughout its transmission. In the multi-channel, digital era, Ellis’s theories of

segmentation do not just apply to television programmes, but are also resonant with a highly

segmented audience, with the availability of niche material in multimedia forms at an

unprecedented level.48 The past decade has seen the ways people watch television revolutionised,

with an increasing amount of control being transferred from the television channels to the viewers

themselves, who can manage what they watch, when they watch it and how they watch it, like never

before. In such a volatile and unpredictable market, a show such as The X Factor has succeeded by

synthesizing tried and tested televisual techniques with cutting-edge technology and new media.

The X Factor embraces the liveness and eventfulness characteristic of early broadcasts, such as

coverage of royal events or one-off dramas, as well as the spectacular excesses of style evident in

American 1980s television, and also incorporates the use of second-shift aesthetics and media

convergence, all combined with reality and makeover strands, making the competition not so much

a programme, but a viewing experience for its audience. The programme serves as a television

equivalent of the major tent-pole releases from Hollywood studios, utilising specifically televisual

techniques and convergence with other domestic forms of media to distinguish television as a

medium, and creating the medium specific phenomenon of ‘Boxbuster’ television. The massive

47 Scannell, Radio, Television and Modern Life, p. 178 48 Ellis, John. Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video (London: Routledge, 1982), p. 112


17

success of the program, and its legacy in other ratings hits such as Britain’s Got Talent and So You

Think You Can Dance?, perhaps indicates a new direction for television; one that not only

‘[reinvents]the stylistic wheel,’ but also adds a high-tech entertainment centre to the televisual

vehicle.49

49 Caldwell, Televisuality, p. 6, Britain’s Got Talent, (UK, Freemantle Media, Talkback Thames and SYCOtv for ITV, tx. 2007 - ), So You Think You Can Dance? (UK, BBC, tx. 2010 - )


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5305 WORDS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

BOOKS

Caldwell, John T. 'Second-shift media aesthetics: programming, interactivity and user flows’ in Everett and

Caldwell ed. New Media: Theories and Practices of Digitextuality (New York: Routledge, 2003), pp.127-144

Caldwell, John Thornton. Televisuality: Style, Crisis and Authority in American Television (New Jersey: Rutgers

University Press, 1995)

Couldry, Nick and McCarthy, Anna ed. MediaSpace: Place, Scale and Culture in a Media Age (London:

Routledge, 2004)

Dyer, Richard. Only Entertainment (London: Routledge, 2002)

Ellis, John. Seeing Things: Television in the Age of Uncertainty (London: I.B. Tauris, 2002)

Ellis, John. Visible Fictions: Cinema, Television, Video (London: Routledge, 1982)

Everett, A. and Caldwell, J. T. ed. New Media: Theories and Practices of Digitextuality (New York: Routledge,

2003)

Huff, Richard. Reality Television (London: Praeger, 2006)

Kellner, Douglas. 'Media culture and the triumph of the spectacle' in King ed. The Spectacle of the Real: from

Hollywood to Reality TV and Beyond (Bristol: Intellect Books, 2005), pp. 23-36

King, Geoff ed. The Spectacle of the Real: from Hollywood to Reality TV and Beyond (Bristol: Intellect Books,

2005)

Scannell, Paddy. Radio, Television and Modern Life (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996

Spigel, Lynn and Olssen, Jan ed. Television After TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition (Durham: Duke

University Press, 2004)

Uricchio, William. 'Television's next generation: technology/interface culture/flow' in Spigel and Olssen ed.

Television After TV: Essays on a Medium in Transition (Durham: Duke University Press, 2004), pp.163-182

White, Mimi. 'The attractions of television: Reconsidering liveness' in Couldry and McCarthy ed. MediaSpace:

Place, Scale and Culture in a Media Age (London: Routledge, 2004), pp. 75-91

JOURNALS

Lewis, Tania, ‘Changing rooms, biggest losers and backyard blitzes: A history of makeover television in the

United Kingdom, United States and Australia’ Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies 22:4 (August

2008), pp. 447-58


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NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

Anon., ‘Calvin Harris defends X Factor stunt’ Telegraph.co.uk 16/11/09 <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/x-factor/6582073/Calvin-Harris-defends-X-Factor-stunt.html> accessed 03/02/10 Anon., ‘The X Factor marks the start of TV becoming social’ Guardian.co.uk, December 09 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/dec/07/the-x-factor-social-tv> accessed 14/12/09 Lawson, Mark, ‘X Factor Final: Joe wins, but its Cowell who has mastered the fickle arts’ Guardian.co.uk 14/12/09 <http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/dec/14/review-mark-lawson-x-factor> accessed 15/12/09.

Plunkett, John, ‘The X Factor: More than 19m watch Joe McElderry win’ Guardian.co.uk 14/12/09

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/14/x-factor-joe-mcelderry> accessed 20/12/09

Thorpe, Vanessa, ‘The X Factor finale gives ITV a bonanza’ Guardian.co.uk 13/12/09

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/dec/13/x-factor-itv-simon-cowell> accessed 14/12/09

INTERNET RESOURCES

Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board, ‘Weekly Top 10 Programmes: ITV1’ 05/10-13/12/09 <http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammes?> accessed 03/02/10

FILMOGRAPHY

TELEVISION PROGRAMMES

Castaway (UK, Lion Television for BBC, tx. 2000, 2007)

Cheryl Cole’s Night In (UK, ITV, tx. 12/12/09)

Friday Night with Jonathon Ross (UK, Hotsauce TV for BBC, tx. 2001 - )

I Dreamed a Dream: The Susan Boyle Story (UK, TalkbackTHAMES, ITV, tx. 13/12/09)

Pop Idol (UK, 19 Television, ITV, tx. 2001-3)

Popstars (UK, Warner Bros TV, ITV, tx. 2001)

Top of the Pops (UK, BBC, tx. 1964-2006)

Wife Swap (UK, RDF Media for Channel 4, tx. 2003-09),

X Factor, The (UK, Fremantle Media, TalkbackTHAMES & SYCOtv, ITV, tx. 2004- )

X Factor: The Winner’s Story, The (UK, ITV2, Fremantle Media, STCO TV & TalkbackTHAMES, 2004 - )



http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/dec/07/the-x-factor-social-tv

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/dec/14/review-mark-lawson-x-factor

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/14/x-factor-joe-mcelderry

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2009/dec/13/x-factor-itv-simon-cowell

http://www.barb.co.uk/report/weeklyTopProgrammes?

Documents

Boxbusters - The X Factor as Spectacular Reality Event