Culture Club: The X Factor, ITV1, Saturdays & Sundays

Readers review this week's big TV show

(TALKBACK THAMES TV )

"Forget Gamu. Bring back Shirlena Johnson!"

Lindsay Garrow

"Dull, boring and irrelevant. The X Factor is a sad indictment of where this country is going. The NHS is under enormous danger and more people care about a talent show."

Jason Bowles

"This year's X Factor – great stuff, but not sure about some of Cheryl and Dannii's decisions."

Helen Driscoll

"There are so many great people going through to the final 12 of this year's X Factor live finals, much more so than in previous years. I have a number of favourites: I think Matt Cardle has an incredible voice; I love his falsetto. I think Cher can be brilliant, but I hope she can survive the pressure. It was a shame to see Paije go, though. If they hadn't raised the age of the Over 25s to Over 28s, Cardle could have gone through in the Overs, leaving a spot for Paije in the boys. And that joke Storm wouldn't have got through at all – how perfect would that be? Can't wait for the live shows, though!"

Sally Gold

"I'll stick to Channel 4 News and the odd documentary thank you."

Dave Watkins

"If you view The X Factor as a serious spectacle then, chances are, you will be disappointed. The whole attraction is its likeness to a pantomime; we boo the rubbish contestants, we cheer the great ones. Louis and Simon's ridiculous, clearly scripted "rivalry" is reminiscent of an olden-day Punch and Judy show. Love it or hate it, there's no denying that The X Factor bug is infectious. All that aside, the show's produced some real talent. The six No 1 hits that JLS and Alexandra Burke have accumulated between them are proof enough."

Livvy Moore

"Why, oh why is this pathetic show even news?"

Vicky Arthur

"Vote with your remote, and don't watch it. It's obviously fixed."

Theresa Marshall

"This is all clearly hype. The 'big twist' this weekend – each judge gets a new act. Gamu will return. It's so fake it might as well be scripted. Oh and by the way did anybody notice will.i.am's criticism of Gamu's vocal range? This being a man who has a vocal range of three semitones – and then only when he's using autotune. You couldn't make it up."

Phil Thompson

"It's a woeful waste of money and a sad reflection of the disproportionately large appetite of society for this cheap and distasteful entertainment. Simon Cowell is a man of extremely dubious morality, who makes money out of other people's talents while exploiting and deriding their emotional frailties. Are these the sort of people we want in positions of such prominence within our society?"

Christian Havlik

"As far as I can tell, the show consists of public humiliation, a guaranteed Christmas No 1, and outrageous sums of money spent on a nobody who's only going be around for a matter of weeks and probably has no actual talent anyway. At least, it does seem to give the mindless, celebrity-obsessed masses and tabloids something to do for a few short weeks."

Simon

"What's wrong with enjoying a silly bit of television? Watching The X Factor doesn't mean you can't appreciate the talents of Tolstoy. Stop being so insecure, everyone. "

Clare Amber

Next week in Culture Club: Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps

Please email your views on Oliver Stone's 'Wall Street' sequel, starring Michael Douglas, tocultureclub@independent.co.uk. The best will be published next Thursday