‘The X Factor’ UK: Is Simon Cowell (finally) opting for free voting?

Are there some major changes in store for “The X Factor” UK this coming season? It sure seems like it, and some of it could not have come at a better time.

According to a report from the Daily Mail, Simon Cowell is getting set to introduce voting that is free on the British series, with the major reason for it being that he wants to engage many more young viewers in his show and have them online voting week after week.

From one standpoint, we do very much understand this move. The show has had contestants make it far into the competition, but who have little success at a career after the show, and many of them have either been older contestants or young “ballad boys” who have big voices, but don’t really do anything that is altogether current. Much of the reason for that, per the press anyway, is that most of the people actually voting are older, established people who can afford to do so. Young people haven’t had that same sort of stake, which is why supposedly some other acts have occasionally fallen by the wayside.

The only issue that could come with this is that it could make it harder on contestants with older fans to really get a place in the competition, just as it could make voting so widespread that you have people voting on Twitter who never even watched the show and are just trying to make someone famous who tweeted about it happy. That’s always a pretty slippery slope, which is why there is probably no perfect way to do this. Each voting system has advantages.

What do you want to see on “The X Factor” UK next season, and do you think that voting for free is really going to make things better for the show? Let us know!