Jai MacDowall is a worthy winner of BGT

The final of Britain's Got Talent was a good show. All the acts performed well, or well enough. In the end it was Jai MacDowall who won. The press are saying it was a shock result. Can't think why, unless they fell for the fixed show thing. Apparently the police think it was all a stunt to boost ratings.

I do hope that come next year all this slimey backstage stuff will have stopped. Each year we are told that applicants queue up at the stage door for auditions. That they come on a voluntary basis having filled out forms. So what are these so-called scouts doing? Some of them are scurrying about the countryside like double glazing salesmen. It's not exactly what the show keeps telling us.

And why these handcuff arrangements? The poor girl who cried, Jessica Hobson, was dumped from the ITV2 show because she blurted out that the song choice was not hers. Is this a talent contest or a Stasi type pantomime? It should not be right for amateur contestants to be gagged and brainwashed so they just parrot out staged words.

It's a good show, but Simon Cowell's paronoia of failure is a real downer on the proceedings. That said, Jai MacDowall was a worthy winner indeed.

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X-Factor and the x-factor Cheryl Cole publicity machine

That's show business!

Some companies couldn't care whether they get good publicity or bad publicity, as they reckon all publicity is good. Ryanair seems to fall into this category. Michael O'Leary, the chief of the airline, loves to banter about publicity. He's like a duck bobbing in the Irish Sea. Then there are are those who love to manufacture publicity. Simon Cowell's organisation is one of them, I think. Not that Cowell would get involved in it all. That's left to others.

The Cheryl Cole business of her being a judge on the American X-Factor is not as bewildering as it may first appear. This is all about control of assets. Judging from recent comments in the press, the viewing figures for the X-Factor have tumbled. But the interest in X-Factor participants, as opposed to contestants, is rising fast. Cheryl Cole is a media figure. Newspapers and magazines make money out of her and no doubt she gets a bit too. But this does not directly help Simon Cowell.

So what better than to stir up a media controversy about the judging panel, thereby attempting to keep the show in the headlines. Trouble is people's egos get hurt. Cheryl Cole is peeved beyond measure that her Geordie accent has been mocked, her very presence in America called into question. She's fallen out with Simon. But he probably never thought of the ruse. It's more likely the minions seeking his approval.

This sort of business needs a bandwagon, but as is so often the case, the wretched wagon is a wheel short, with the wrong nags pulling it, with the passengers at odds with each other as to what to do for the best. Maybe X-Factor has got some other factor?

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