Pete Waterman: I don't watch 'The X Factor'

This isn't a news but I liked to post it here, because I like this article.


Pete Waterman – who was dubbed Slaughterman for his frank verdicts on 'Pop Idol' – tells Neil Tweedie he is appalled by the excesses of today's TV talent shows

Unlike a good proportion of the British population, Pete Waterman doesn't watch The X Factor, the hit ITV show in which thousands of people, talented and talentless, hopeful and hopeless, vie for the chance of fame, fortune and a recording contract.

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But he can guess what it's like, having been a judge on the show's precursor, Pop Idol.

"I've never seen it, but the public watch The X Factor in big numbers," he acknowledges, sitting back in his recording studio on the South Bank in London. "A young lad who works for me watches it, though. He calls it 'car-crash television'.

"He loves car-crash television. The bigger the crash, the better. The truth is that when you get a big crash on a motorway people slow down to have a look. People see the sight of blood and they love it. The contestants are the modern-day equivalent of the Christians being thrown to the lions." ... ... ...