The X Factor 2017, Judges' Houses, Sunday recap: could Cheryl's appearance be a warm-up for her returning to the show properly?
On last night's X Factor we visited San Francisco and South Africa, and tonight Dermot O'Leary's air miles will be getting a further boost, as the final part of Judges' Houses gets done and dusted in the French Riviera and Istanbul. So, after multiple audition stages, that must mean that the final 12 is finally sorted then, yes? Well, not quite...
Bow down, it’s Cheryl
Well, of course Simon Cowell gets the most high-profile guest judge: Cheryl Mystery Surname sashayed out of a helicopter, all hair and dimples, and helped Simon whittle down his acts in the flattering conditions (not that she needs them) of the French Riviera.
“This is the most exciting Judges’ Houses I’ve ever done,” she said graciously, as she cast her eye over the six groups who all seemed to be contractually obliged to be dazzled by her. She did actually seem to get quite into it, giving advice to the girl bands based on her time in Girls Aloud, jiggling around like a total mum to the urban pop of Rak-Su and indulging in some low-level flirting with Simon. After two years running of the same old judging panel, could this have been a warm-up for Cheryl returning to the show properly next year? May the wild speculation begin.
Remarkably, there are no duff groups this year
The groups is often a bit of a duff category (hence it often being dumped on long-suffering Louis Walsh) but, with Simon Cowell at the helm, clearly that wasn’t going to be allowed to happen this year.
None of the six groups who made it to the South of France messed up their performances, and various combinations of them could feasibly have made it through. In the end, though, Simon settled on Scottish siblings The Cutkelvins (“a no brainer”, he declared), Irish brothers Sean & Conor Price and Watford boy band Rak-Su (also “a no brainer”. New talent show cliché alert).
In fact, with previous favourite Grace Davies cracking under the pressure during last night’s Judges’ Houses, we could even see Rak-Su winning the whole thing; they’re fun, likeable and all of the original songs they’ve performed have been very slick and catchy. We’ll just have to see how they fare during the live shows when they presumably won’t get quite so much control over song choices.
To Istanbul, where Aidan finally stops crying
Throughout the competition, Aidan Martin, one of Louis Walsh’s final six boys, has sobbed and blubbed and whimpered. He’s a lovely singer, but the constant waterworks have started to grate a little. “You make me emotional too,” said Louis Walsh after his performance in Istanbul, before, in a somewhat two-faced move, telling guest judge Mika, “it’s almost like he’s too desperate sometimes”.
Miraculously, when Aidan failed to make Louis’s final three, he was pretty much the only boy who didn’t cry. In fact, his reaction was rather cold and frankly it was a little disappointing.
Cheryl: her life and career in pictures
“It’s not good news… it’s great news!”
Yes, Louis Walsh went there, rolling out his tried and tested Judges’ Houses catchphrase for approximately the 200th year running. This time, it was sweet Sam Black – a late addition to the line-up after replacing Anthony Russell – who was the recipient, and Louis really made him work for it, telling him his vocal the day before had been weak and that he’d never given an amazing performance… but that the great-not-good news was that he was taking him through anyway. Louis then came over a bit Disney, saying “Sam, I believe in you, that’s why I picked you… now I need you to start believing in you.”
Sam’s extremely emotional reaction was one of the most extreme so far, prompting Dermot O’Leary, in one of the funniest moments of the night, to tell him “You’ve got to pull this together - I haven’t seen this since Rylan!”.
Sam isn’t the most polished act in the competition, but he is very likeable, and he’s not the only one in Louis’s final three who has the total sweetie factor: Welsh singer Lloyd Macey is also absolutely impossible to dislike, even if his musical theatre style isn’t for everyone. We could see him doing very well indeed, as long as the live shows don’t run too much past 9pm when all the grannies who’ll inevitably adore him go to bed.
But was Spencer the right choice?
We’re less confident about the third boy in Louis’s final line-up: Spencer Sutherland, all the way from Ohio. He’s a good enough singer, but we’re not sure the voting public will engage enough with someone so self-assured, handsome and, well, American. We preferred him to Jack Mason, but there were still more obvious choices in the final six. Still, perhaps all is not lost…
Because along come the wildcards
Throwing a huge strop about the final 12 now would be a little premature (not to mention irrational. It’s only a talent show, after all), because there’s still a spot left in the live shows, with the wildcard vote being thrown open at the end of tonight’s show. With no novelty act currently in the line-up, we have a horrible feeling that Slavko could well be the over who gets another chance, while likeable Leon Mallett, sweet Talia Dean, weepy Aidan Martin, quirky duo Jack & Joel and powerhouse Georgina Panton could all be likely contenders too. We’ll find out next week, when the live shows finally kick in, just in time for Halloween (which surely has Slavko written all over it…).