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[[folder: British version]]
* AccidentalAesop: Happens time and again.
* BadassDecay: Danyl Johnson did fairly well in the 2009 series, coming fourth overall, but it's fair to say that he never quite lived up to the promise of his initial audition.
** Could also apply to the careers of those who do well in the show, with the exceptions of Leona Lewis, JLS and (so far) Alexandra Burke, it's perhaps fair to say that noone has set the world alight or been very successful in the music industry.
** Janet Devlin was considered to be the runaway favourite during the early stages of the 2011 series. However, her performances started to get worse as the series went on, eventually resulting in her falling apart spectacularly in the third-last week, and being voted off the show.
* BileFascination: Might be the biggest reason why [[HopelessAuditionees the audition rounds]] are the most popular segment of each series.
* CreatorsPet: Katie Waissel - She wound up in the bottom two for ''four consecutive weeks'', amid accusations that the judges voting was rigged (i.e. [[WildMassGuessing When she had the fewest votes from the public, they voted to keep her in despite a poor performance in the sing-off; the next week, they voted to go to deadlock despite her clearly having the worst performance in the sing-off, because she didn't have the fewest public votes]]). This wasn't helped when the voting figures were released & matched up to these theories.
** Although if that was the case, you'd have to wonder why they were releasing voting figures that proved themselves to be cheats. If the show was rigged in that way, it'd be easy enough for them to release forged voting numbers, but they don't seem to have done that.
*** In 2007, there was a scandal about various phone-in competitions & polls run by ITV (The channel that broadcasts ''TheXFactor'') were discovered to have had various issues with the phonelines. Because of this, if ITV were found to be tampering with the results of the polls, they would face heavy fines.
** 2011 provided Misha B - This isn't to say that she was a bad singer, but her mentor Kelly Rowland clearly favored her over her other acts. It got worse after she lost public support following accusations of bullying and wound up in the bottom two on multiple occaisions, but remained in the competition until the final few weeks; when the judges acknowledged that even if Misha got to the final, she didn't have the support of the fans & wouldn't win, so voted her out.
* DamselScrappy: Katie Waissel may have the biggest hatedom of any contestant ever, yet somehow she kept on getting saved...
* EliminationHoudini: Katie Waissel survived the final showdown a record ''four'' times.
* EnsembleDarkhorse: Gamu Nhengu seems to have become this if public reaction to her being booted out before the live shows is anything to go by.
** Nowadays, though, it's Katie Waissel and CherLloyd, with Gamu having disappeared from public consciousness, only with her becoming MemeticMutation on radio stations OopNorth and in TheMidlands.
** Also, [[http://xfactor-updates.com/the-contestants/tanja-london-auditions-3/ Tanja from West London]], who fans '''want brought back!''''
* {{Glurge}}
* HarsherInHindsight: The judges' reassurances to Ray Quinn in the 2006 final that even though he didn't have the slightest chance of winning, he was still a talented singer and would do well for himself whatever happened. In actual fact Quinn's career failed ''miserably'' after the final, and he remains to this day the least successful ''X Factor'' finalist by some distance.
* HilariousInHindsight: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNhZlP49d5g In the series 7 Judge's Houses, Simon and Sinitta are talking about the groups they want to send to the finals.]] The eight candidates were Belle Amie, Diva Fever, F.Y.D., Husstle, One Direction, Princes & Rogues, The Reason, and Twem. When Sinitta mentions the superstar potential of one of the groups, Simon says "Not in a million, billion years!" and comments that "no one is going to put them on their bedroom wall." Fast forward two years, and millions of teenage girls in America, let alone the U.K., do have [[Music/OneDirection one of these groups]] on their walls.
** Earlier that series: "All fingers are pointing in ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aatSF2gP-Qs one direction.]]''"
** Adding to the One Direction-related humor, Simon, after the attempt to use Leeds for an audition area (see EpicFail on the main page), declared Yorkshire a musical wasteland. Two members of One Direction (Louis and Zayn) are from Yorkshire (Doncaster and Bradford, respectively).
* HoYay: Johnny Robinson and Gary Barlow. So. Very. Much.
** LesYay: Between Tulisa and Kelly. There was even an AlmostKiss between them.
* HypocriticalFandom: What's that? The online campaign to get ''Killing In The Name'' by RageAgainstTheMachine to Christmas No. 1 is unfair? Compared to what? ''The several month long advertising campaign to get the latest winner of a singing contest to Christmas No. 1''?
* MagnificentBastard: Simon Cowell.
** Louis Walsh may qualify as one as well, based on the success that Jedward have experienced since appearing on the show.
** Cheryl Cole too, in more recent times, when she's with Cher Lloyd and Katie Waissel.
* MemeticMutation: Katie Waissel, Cher Lloyd and Belle Amie have become British radio memes.
* {{Moe}} - 2009's winner Joe [=McElderry=], who's been repeatedly described by the judges as "adorable", "cute" or "precious".
-->'''Dannii Minogue''': Oh! Those dimples! What more could a girl want?
* {{Narm}}: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4CTReuSw08 Rylan Clark hysterical crying.]] There's even some {{corpsing}} from Dermot.
* NightmareFuel: Christopher Maloney's performance of "[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL--imNJzNA Total Eclipse of the Heart]]" which had a backdrop of his face grinning, [[EyeBeams shooting lasers out of his eyes]]. Even the judges found it creepy.
* {{Padding}}: The live finals ''oh so much'', cutting out the ads and fast forwarding through all the talking for a 2h 30m show and you can get the run time down to about 25 minutes...
* RefugeInAudacity: the "Ablisa" duo are either an EpicFail at attempting this trope or a cleverly-conceived [[DeconstructedTrope deconstruction of the trope.]]
* SoBadItsGood: Despite their complete inability to sing, Chico Slimani, Jedward and Wagner all developed fandoms who could appreciate their somewhat unique talents.
** Ablisa in the 2010 auditions. Though, that was more to do with the fact that they shouted at the crowd to shut up when they booed and one punched the other in the face.
** Subverted with Goldie from the 2011 auditions. She had no ability to sing and largely depended on her stage antics and was surprisingly passed through to Judge's Houses. Louis became her mentor and put her through to the live shows but in a rare case of GenreSavvy, she withdrew from the competition as she suspected she was the token "novelty" act if she continued; she was then replaced by a more competent contestant.
* TheScrappy: Katie Waissel, Jedward, Wagner and more recently, Cher Lloyd.
** Louis Walsh is heading this way due to his increasingly erratic choice of eliminations.
* TheWoobie: Wagner has been getting this, despite being tone deaf and missing notes he has proven to be quite popular, even he is aware of his problems as he apologises to the judges for it. However several scathing comments from fellow contestants and judges have made him more sympathetic to the audience.
* TooSexyForThisTimeslot (Khandi Rain from 2009, who were former strippers who wore {{Stripperiffic}} outfits. Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue criticised them for doing that. While it's certainly true it wasn't helping them move on, getting criticised for {{Fanservice}} by someone who posed nude for ''{{Playboy}}'' is a bit rich)
** The show got in trouble again for Christina Aguilera and Rihanna's performances on the 2010 final, both of whom appeared in what appeared to be their underwear and giving performances that were perhaps a tad overly-sexualised for a family audience, at least according to the tabloids.
*** In the classic British tabloid tradition of "Scenes that are too obscene and immoral to be shown - full pictures with close-ups inside!"
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[[folder: American version]]
* AndThereWasMuchRejoicing: When it was revealed Steve and Nicole would not be returning.
* CreatorsPet: Marcus Canty was less liked than each of the three contestants he faced off against and won all three times.
** Some feel Melanie Amaro was this as she randomly gained a Caribbean accent and then somehow vaulted to the top. To say Drew and Rachel Crow were more popular than her is an understatement.
* EliminationHoudini: Marcus Canty has survived the final showdown three times in a row.
** From season 2, there is Cece Frey, who was in the bottom 2 in 4 out of 6 live shows, and gets fairly consistent criticism (or compliments based on factors other than singing) from the judges, yet managed to finish in sixth place. Also, after the second time in the bottom, she chewed out the viewers, saying "I gave 110% last week, and you still put me in the bottom", showing a remarkable lack of gratitude for the votes she did get.
* HateDumb / MisplacedNationalism: The American version has gotten hate simply because "It's not the British version."
* HilariousInHindsight: LA Reid didn't know the DemiLovato song "Skyscraper" when Drew sang it. Now that Demi has joined him on the judging panel, this becomes funny.
* TheScrappy: Steve Jones, Nicole Scherzinger and for contestants Marcus Canty and possibly Astro
** Khloe Kardashian in Season 2, but she was already one before joining the show. Mario Lopez hasn't fared much better.
* TearJerker: One of Britney Spears' past collaborators, Don Phillips, auditioned for season 2, but was not very good, and was told no by all four judges, including Britney. The worst part was him in tears afterwards. Not because of him getting told no, but because he felt like he had "hurt Britney".
* UnfortunateImplications: Many were surprised by the ShockingElimination of Willie Jones, David Correy and Diamond White during the first results show of Season 2, especially since the three of them were not white, while some of the less talented contestants stayed.
* WhatTheHellCastingAgency: Khloe Kardashian as cohost, there are several ways to get viewers. This is a way to lose viewers.
[[/folder]]

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