The X Factor's all about manipulation as Danyl shows off

Now I've finally caught up with the first X Factor show, here are a few of my thoughts.

Firstly, how huge must Simon Cowell and Co's carbon footprints be? They can't turn up to the venue in one vehicle - their egos are too big to fit - so they have to use four cars, or, for the London auditions, speed boats. What an unnecessary waste of fuel! They ended the episode by boarding a private plane, admittedly all together for once, but where on earth were they flying to guzzling up more gallons? And in Manchester, Simon had to be driven from his hotel even though it was next door to the venue. Shame on you!

But the show is still great, of course, and refreshingly free of sob stories so far. The addition of the live audience is a good one, letting us see who can perform and who just stands there like a scared rabbit in the headlights.

There is such a thing as over-performing, though. I couldn't get nearly as excited about teacher Danyl than the judges, who gave him a standing ovation. I found him over-confident to the point of cockiness, with his microphone throwing and stage-name spelling of his moniker - come on, was he really born Danyl and not Daniel?

He was in great contrast to smiley single mum Stacey from Dagenham, who had a great voice but was completely natural. I loved her.

Another question strikes me. There must be quite a bit of rehearsing involved before they supposedly step on to the stage for the first time, or how else do they know in what key and tempo to play the backing track? Which once again suggests a lot more behind-the-scenes manipulation going on than someone just turning up for an audition. It makes it harder to believe the hype, but I guess that's what reality TV is about these days - an almost complete lack of realism.