Does the X Factor still have the ‘X Factor’?
IN the countdown to X Factor’s return this weekend, one question dominates: will Simon Cowell correctly pronounce the surname of his fellow judge, the artist formerly known as Cheryl Cole? Following her marriage, this year, to a French restaurateur, she is now Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, a tumult of syllables that could have been conceived to send Cowell’s iconically massive eye-brows waggling.
It says something for reality television’s foremost franchise that, in its 11th season, the mildly exotic married name of a judge is the focus. But nobody is talking about X Factor’s recent record in uncovering talent — because it’s not good.
