The X Factor/YMMV

British version

• Accidental Aesop: Happens time and again.
• Badass Decay: 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.
• Bile Fascination: Might be the biggest reason why the audition rounds are the most popular segment of each series.
• Creator's Pet: Katie Waissel - She wound up in the bottom two for four consecutive weeks, amid accusations that the judges voting was rigged (i.e. 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 The X Factor) 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.
• Damsel Scrappy: Katie Waissel may have the biggest hatedom of any contestant ever, yet somehow she kept on getting saved...
• Elimination Houdini: Katie Waissel survived the final showdown a record four times.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: 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 Cher Lloyd, with Gamu having disappeared from public consciousness, only with her becoming Memetic Mutation on radio stations Oop North and in The Midlands.
  • Also, Tanja from West London, who fans want brought back!'
• Glurge
• Harsher in Hindsight: 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.
• Hypocritical Fandom: What's that? The online campaign to get Killing In The Name by Rage Against the Machine 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?
• Magnificent Bastard: 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.
• Memetic Mutation: 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"
• Refuge in Audacity: the "Ablisa" duo are either an Epic Fail at attempting this trope or a cleverly-conceived deconstruction of the trope.
• So Bad It's Good: 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 Genre Savvy, 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.
• The Scrappy: Katie Waissel, Jedward, Wagner and more recently, Cher Lloyd.
  • Louis Walsh is heading this way due to his increasingly erratic choice of eliminations.
• The Woobie: 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.
• Too Sexy for This Time Slot (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 Fan Service 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!"

American version

• And the Fandom Rejoiced: When Britney Spears was announced as a judge for season 2
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: When it was revealed Steve and Nicole would not be returning
• Creator's Pet: Marcus Canty was less liked than each of the three contestants he faced off against and won all three times.
• Elimination Houdini: Marcus Canty has survived the final showdown three times in a row.
• Hate Dumb / Misplaced Nationalism: The American version has gotten hate simply because "It's not the British version."
• The Scrappy: Steve Jones, Nicole Scherzinger and for contestants Marcus Canty and possibly Astro