X Factor 2017, second Six Chair Challenge: have Sean & Conor peaked too soon?

And so the Six Chair Challenge continues. The X Factor’s most cut-throat stage kicked off last week with Sharon Osbourne and the girls, and tonight it was the turn of Simon Cowell’s groups and Nicole Scherzinger’s overs to persuade their mentors and the heckle-happy arena audience that they deserve a nice sit-down and an all-inclusive trip to Judges' Houses… 

It’s X Factor at its most calculating

With Simon Cowell at the helm for the first half of tonight’s show, as he mutated his category, the groups, into his chosen formation, it was always going to be brutal. But never has the Six Chair Challenge process been quite so dismissive of people’s individual personalities and feelings than this.

We learned that a new girl band had been formed out of the remnants of Sharon’s category – fair enough, it happens most years. But this still wasn’t quite manufactured enough for Simon. After the as-yet-unnamed five-piece performed – pretty impressively considering they had been together for less than 24 hours – Simon did some thinking and decided to extract another girl, Ash, from previously rejected ensemble NQ.

Ash didn’t really get much say in the matter, with Dermot O'Leary following orders to march her on stage and both the audience and her prospective new bandmates shrieking “do it!” at her. So, she did it. But what we didn’t get to see was how her old bandmates in NQ felt about all this. Perhaps they’ve been melted down into scrap by the great X Factor machine already.

What were Rak-Su singing about?

Rak-Su have been one of this series’ stand-out acts from the start. Looking like a gang of hunky (yes, we said hunky. Yes, we are someone’s mum) PE teachers, the foursome have performed their own catchy material at every stage and are clearly and rightly destined for the live shows.

Tonight they put in another slick performance. But the lyrics of their track, Change Your Mind, felt a little uncomfortable in these post-Weinstein times: “Hey pretty girl, you’d better change your mind, you already know that you should be mine” went the jolly little rap part.  Still, they performed it with cheeky grins on their faces, Simon said they filled “a gap in the market” and nobody called the police, so we guess it’s… fine?

Sean & Conor peaked too early

Irish brothers Sean and Conor Price were the golden boys of the competition after their first audition. But a lot can happen in a few weeks. They seem to struggle more as they progress further, but keep getting the benefit of the doubt because they’re just so damned sweet and likeable. “Guys, what’s clear is that in the small room you were much more comfortable,” said Simon. “It’s difficult for people your age [15 and 17] to be in a room this big… you’re showing your nerves.” Never the less, they were still infinitely better than most of the interchangeable girl bands, so a seat was theirs.

X Factor winners: where are they now?

Eric stole the show

It used to be Sinitta who flapped around Simon and backed up his opinions, but she’s been replaced by a younger, cuter lackey: Simon’s three year old son, Eric. The toddler was shown during the show giving the thumbs-up for the acts he liked and, most importantly, dispensing satsumas to his dad to remind us all that Simon is, in fact, a human being who needs just as much vitamin C as the rest of us.

It’s the Filipino factor

This year’s X Factor feels like an exchange programme with the Philippines (does that mean we can give them Honey G?). Last week, Alisah Bonaobra won a spot in Sharon’s girls category, and this week two more Filipino acts performed: insanely cheesy but vocally gifted boy band JBK in the groups and 31 year old solo singer Loverine Fermino in the overs.

While JBK ultimately lost their seat to girl band Lemonade (causing Nicole to storm off stage in defence of her “Philippino brothers”), Loverine stole a spot from likeable Talia Dean, inciting much booing and declarations of “That is madness” from Simon. This was the cliffhanger the show ended on, so we won’t find out the final decision just yet. But hey, at least everyone’s good for air miles.

Are the overs over before they’ve started?

One thing was clear tonight: as ever, the overs is not the strongest category in the competition. Even decent singers like Berget Lewis and Gary Barker failed to make a huge impression (Gary was likened to a “tax collector” by Sharon and a “funeral director” by Simon. Harsh.) while novelty types like Danny Lambo and Slavko Kalezic were just annoying.

We’re hoping that singers who’ve previously shown more potential in both the charisma and talent departments, like Matt Linnen and Tracey-Leanne Jefford, will do something a bit more impressive on Sunday night’s show, or Nicole definitely has a duff year on her hands. No wonder she keeps storming off.