The X Factor UK season 14 somehow makes six-chair challenge even worse

There is a pretty terrible pattern that tends to exist when it comes to our relationship with The X Factor UK. It begins with us getting a chance to hear about some of the various efforts that are done to make the show better, and we start to get excited, thinking that these are changes that could make the show more lighthearted and fun. Sometimes it’s hard to think that Britain’s Got Talent and this show are cousins of each other in terms of tone and how many of the contestants are often treated.

Then, The X Factor goes ahead and reminds us why we can’t have nice things or have hope that the show actually understands what it needs to be in 2017. It takes itself far too seriously as a show. Sure, we understand that there is a serious prize at the end of it, but if you turn all of your contestants into super-serious sob-stories uttering the same clichés over and over again about their dreams, you’re sapping much of the personality away from all of them. That’s not where you want to be with a show like this, one that should be looking to rely on uniqueness in 2017.

Let’s go ahead and detail now what it is precisely that we hate about the show’s direction at present: The six-chair challenge. It’s terrible. It’s always been terrible. At the entire center of this idea is watching the judges have to tell singers that they are worse than other singers, and it’s incredibly cruel how they tell people to give up a spot while the audience screams at them like a pack of angry hyenas. It may be the most stressful singing-show experience on TV and we can’t tell you a single time we’ve watched a six-chair challenge episode and said “well, that was fun.”

This year, The Sun reports that there is another change coming to the format for the season, and this one is somehow more awful even than some of the others that the show has done over the years. They’re separating the judges from the rest of the panel while they make their decisions on their category. The reasoning for that seems to be to cut down on the judges all coming together and making collective decisions — also, there is clearly someone in production who likes it when the audience boos one of the judges for some of the decisions that they make.

This article reveals that Sharon Osbourne is going to be judging the Girls category this year, and that is at least exciting given that for the past two times she’s been on the show, she’s worked with the Overs. At least this time it’s something different! What won’t be different, alas, is just how depressing this round of the competition is.

Want to get some other news when it comes to The X Factor?

Then be sure to head over to the link here! Remember that the new season of the show is going to be premiering a little bit later this summer. (Photo: ITV.)