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The new season of The X Factor looks fresh, exciting and relevant

  • August 8, 2016
  • Popjustice

PJ0274

You know what, so much time and energy is thrown at cri­ti­cising The X Factor for losing momentum, missing the point com­pletely and generally declining in relevance, but credit where it's due, the new season looks GREAT.

The only catch is that it's happening in Australia.

These are the judges.

x factor au judges

And you might look at the picture, and you might think a few things. You might think "Adam Lambert isn't the biggest star in the world". You might think "I am not generally keen on the idea of Iggy Azalea". You might think "Guy Sebastian seems nice enough but he's still Guy Sebastian". You might think all those things and more.

But.

x factor judges 2016

(Picture credit: Off the ITV X Factor website. L‑R: Happy To Be There, Paid Large Sum To Be There,  Lucky To Be There, Generally Obliged To Be There)

There are probably all sorts of com­plic­ated/semi-boring reasons, involving advert­ising and demo­graph­ics, for the X Factor Australia panel looking like that while the X Factor UK panel looks like this. But the clip below is so full of excite­ment and energy and a sense of trying to push things forward a bit that you do rather wonder how all that fell out of the UK version.

Brace yourselves. The Underdog Judge is coming! Who is it? #xfactorau pic.twitter.com/59XYJwx5Sl

— #XFactorAU (@thexfactorau) August 8, 2016

Shows like The X Factor exist in a pop­cul­tural window that seems to have been slowly closing for a while now, but you can still feel a decent breeze on a good day and at least the Australian version is attempt­ing to show viewers that it deserves to still be on air in two years' time.

Anyway here's the UK's 2016 panel laughing at a man like it's 2005 or something.

  • Adam Lambert
  • iggy azalea
  • The X Factor
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Further reading
  • 1
    Fine, let's do a Substack then.
  • 2
    The 2022 Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize: shortlist
  • 3
    2021 Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize: Laura Mvula wins
  • 4
    Sarah Harding
  • 5
    "You asked me not to leave, well here I am again"
  • 6
    The 2021 Popjustice Twenty Quid Music Prize: shortlist announced
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