Is this year's 'X Factor' cursed?

X Factor returned to our screens this September with perhaps the most impressive judge line-up ever. The hugely successful Robbie Williams, his wife Ayda Field, One Direction member and former X Factor contestant Louis Tomlinson joined the show’s OG judge Simon Cowell for an all-star new judging line-up.

But alas the series has been plagued with scandals and disappointments since its very first episode. Could the series be cursed? We take a look at ten of the most shocking moments from the series so far…

Ayda Field as a questionable judge choice

Ayda Field, Williams and wife and mother to their three children, has joined her husband on this year’s judging panel. A former television actress, Field has no known music experience. Although this year’s X Factor finalists have vehemently defended her right to be a judge, of course many viewers have criticised her judging qualifications.

Robbie criticised for asking question to transgender contestant

During the auditioning process, Robbie was criticised by some viewers for asking contestant Felix Shepherd what his ‘birth name’ was. Viewers claimed his original name was his ‘dead name’ and an insensitive question to ask a transgendered individual.

Business class travel fakery claims

Irish airline Aer Lingus released a promotional video of X Factor contestants being flown out business class to the judges houses. However, fans on the same flight published on Twitter that they saw the contestants drinking champagne in the business class seats – but were then ‘marched back’ to their actual economy seats minutes later.

The airline was forced to issue a public statement and admit to the fakery. Its spokesperson said: “As part of Aer Lingus’ partnership with X Factor, we flew contestants to perform at the judges’ houses.

“The contestants were shown sampling the business class cabins. All footage was filmed by the X Factor production team and provided to Aer Lingus.”

Danny Tetley announced as wrong contestant

Overs contestant Danny Tetley had the humiliating experience of being announced as the wrong contestant live on X Factor. The Benidorm singer was not only announced as Boys contestant Anthony Russell but the wrong backing song was played. A clearly flustered Tetley was forced to ask to start his performance again.

Robbie and Ayda accused of colluding

Although Robbie and Ayda have had plenty of fun mocking one another throughout the series so far, there was also a moment a few weeks back when fans accused them of colluding. When it came to Robbie choosing over Ayda’s Overs act Janice Robinson or Boys Armstrong Martin, he was shown looking over to his wife before deciding to save her act.

Rak-Su accused of miming

Last year’s X Factor winners Rak-Su made their return to the show by performing on the show’s first ‘live’ episode. But unfortunately it was a less than triumphant comeback as their auto-tuned sounding vocals set to their energetic dance moves prompted many fans to accuse them of miming. However, the band adamantly denied miming on the show and claim to always sing live during their performances.

New fix claims

On Sunday’s X Factor several eagle-eyed viewers made a new ‘fix’ claim. They spotted that as the bottom three acts awaited host Dermot O’Leary to announce which two would face a sing-off – only the two bottom acts that were put through to the sing-off had microphones.

Dermot O’Leary’s hosting fail

The typically cool and professional Dermot O’Leary made an awkward gaffe on Saturday’s night’s episode when he got stand-in judge and musical legend Nile Rodgers’ name wrong. While addressing Rodgers he appeared to call him ‘Noel Rodgers.’

Voting cancelled after sound glitch

Perhaps the most embarrassing moment to plague the series so far was this weekend’s epic technical glitches. A problem with the sound transmission made the singer’s voices sound unintelligible for almost ten minutes of the show. This caused the show to cancel voting on Saturday night and shift all votes to the Sunday night episode. This is the first time a voting has been cancelled in the show’s 15-year history.

Plummeting ratings

This year’s X Factor opened with the lowest ratings since it first aired back in 2004. The ratings have been consistently dwarfed by their main rival – Strictly Come Dancing – week after week. One week, Strictly even outdid X Factor by over 5 million viewers. Once one of the most watched shows on television, the future of X Factor seems uncertain to say the least.

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