‘The X Factor’ UK postmortem: Why Bratavio was eliminated

This past weekend, “The X Factor” UK lost its first contestant of the season (at least via ordinary means) in Bratavio, an eclectic, high-energy, and in many ways crazy duo act. We do feel like the general sentiment entering the results show on Sunday was that they were going to be going home, so we’re sitting here writing this postmortem article with a fairly good sense of what went wrong.

Yet, we do think that their exit merits a deeper dive, especially when it comes to identifying specific problems that future acts can avoid if they want to stay in the competition in the long-term. (We’ll be doing these postmortem pieces all season — typically, they’ll be in the day or two following the elimination, but the craziness of the Brooks Way exit delayed this one.)

Performance ability – The biggest strike against Bratavio was simply that they couldn’t quite compete from a singing standpoint. Other than maybe Honey G, they were the weakest act vocally in the top 12. While they may know how to own the stage and have a good time, voters for this show (who tend to be older) will often favor the stronger pure singers over some of the campy acts.

The story – The one way that an act like this has a shot is if they are presented as really sweet, likable underdogs who are just trying to give this a go. Think Stevi Ritchie or Rylan Clark for this. They were both endearing. However, Bratavio started this competition with a fight about one of them serving the other under-cooked chicken, and they were established from then on out as high drama. Some tabloid reports, true or not, about their partying probably did not help. We didn’t really get to know them enough as people to feel connected to who they were.

Other backlash – The other thing that probably worked against them was Louis Walsh’s decision (which they had no control over) to put them through to the live shows over Yes Lad, Tom and Laura, or Four of Diamonds — who are ironically now back in the competition after the exit of Brooks Way.

Why do you think Bratavio was eliminated this past weekend? Let us know now in the attached comments. (Photo: ITV.)