The X Factor continues to delight and frustrate in equal measure

The (majority of) contestants are stronger than before, the judges continue to bicker better and Dermot O'Leary goes from strength to strength. Snide comments and hypocrisy retains its usual prevalance, for example Cheryl Cole criticises a girl band for their skimpy attire and then two weeks later appears to borrow their wardrobe. But the real increase in strength for the X Factor goes unnoticed within the mainstream. The business model is stronger than ever.

They are clever boffins the producers of the show led by head honcho Simon Cowell. In a world where the credit crunch eats into middle England's disposable income advertising revenues are also down. This is due to both the 'credit crunch effect' and a wholesale shift to on-line advertising which is cheaper and in a lot of cases better suited to the younger generations. So what to do? Well how about this - we can leave our phone lines open for 24 hours and then have two prime time advertising slots. That'll do it!

I would imagine it will only be a matter of time until some newspaper runs a story about how some teenagers have bankrupt their parents with repeated calls to vote for John and Edward (well someone's voting for them). There is a social responsibility which has quite possibly been overlooked by Simon Cowell et al.

Now back to John and Edward. We're all paying our, no sorry, our kids are spending our hard earned cash on keeping them in while it would appear everyone over 15 wants them out. So how about this Simon. Go back to two shows on a Saturday night and give us two lines for every act, a 'keep them in' and a 'get them out' line. At least then we only have to watch the kids and our phones for two hours, and we get to have our feelings aired. I am confident they (John and Edward) would have been out in the first week if this was the case.

I don't like John and Edward (quickly becoming known as Jedward). But I don't like them because they can't sing, dance, have very little charisma, have no X Factor and managed to get everyone's backs up in the first two minutes of being on TV. Now I'm not sure what Louie was thinking, although this stage being pre-recorded he wouldn't have know the public's perception. But they are two young lads who don't deserve to be booed off stage or have quite so many Facebook hate groups. They are annoying, but not evil!

The X Factor will probably continue to go from strength to strength in the short to medium term. However, the producers may wish to consider the longer term implications of what they do.