Playing The Prices

Nov 18, 2017 by Rob

A double, double elimination on X Factor this weekend which will see the field dramatically reduced from 10 to 6. It is haemorrhaging contestants almost as fast as it is losing viewers.

It’s Groups and Boys tonight; Girls and Overs tomorrow night, and once more we are left to scrutinise the song choices and try to figure out who is going to fly and who is being teed up for a fall. An even more difficult conundrum given Rak-Su, Grace and The Cutkelvins are all singing original songs.

This, in itself, might be seen as a plus for all three given the season-long narrative of looking for original artists who can write their own material. The most intriguing one among the three is The Cutkelvins.

For Cutkelvins backers this offers a tiny ray of light but you do wonder if this is Syco toying with them much the same way a cat plays with a half-dead mouse.

However, given The Cutkelvins current Betfair Back price of 40 compared to Rak-Su residing at 2.34 at time of posting, it is a no-brainer The Cutkelvins price represents value given the possibility for that price to significantly contract granted favourable treatment tonight.

Sean and Conor have a track with nearly 60 million views on YouTube but it doesn’t seem to offer the chance for any sort of break-out performance by them.

Sam appears to be a dead man walking with ‘Oops’ having the same sort of 60s vibe they have pigeon-holed him with series-long. It’s more a question of who will join him in departing the show tonight, and how precisely the 2nd elimination will work.

Presuming Sam is bottom of the public vote, will the second bottom automatically be eliminated or might Syco instigate some other elimination process?

Lloyd has been favoured up to this point, winning last week’s Prize Fight, but ‘From This Moment On’ is a full-on dirge-fest and offers Cowell the chance to sprinkle his poison, pointing out Lloyd is firmly in his comfort zone singing it and what an unoriginal choice it is.

Talking of which, Kevin’s song is also a dirge unless he is somehow able to put his spin on it and the script is there for the judges to rave about him making it his own, as we have seen in the last couple of weeks. Fallin’ has been done to death too and doesn’t bode particularly well for Matt.

Among the Girls, Grace has apparently been suffering with a cold which could effect her performance tomorrow. Rai-Elle’s classic R&B track should suit her well. Cowell was encouraging Holly to be more modern and she has been given a modern hit with close to 500 million YouTube views, but much like Sean and Conor’s song choice, it doesn’t offer any sort of moment.

Holly certainly wasn’t favoured from last week’s pimp slot and over the course of the lives you would have to say Rai-Elle has received the more positive treatment.

Given the dynamics of the free app vote and how fluid weekly voting is, heavily dictated by each act’s treatment during the show, Syco will feel confident it can smuggle the 4 acts off the show it wants off the show this weekend.

The guess here, pre-show, is Sam, Sean and Conor, Matt and Holly departing but there is clearly room for some big upsets and it is one that needs to be closely monitored in-running with room for some dramatic price movements.

Crazy In Love songs:

Simon’s Groups

Rak-Su – Mona Lisa

The Cutkelvins – Saved Me From Myself

Sean and Conor Price – Issues

Nicole’s Overs

Kevin Davy White – I Will Always Love You

Matt Linnen – Fallin’

Sharon’s Girls

Grace Davies – Hesitate

Holly Tandy – Love Me Harder

Rai-Elle Williams – Mr. Big Stuff

Louis Boys

Lloyd Macey – From This Moment On

Sam Black – Oops