After X Factor, how can ITV turn down anything Simon Cowell asks?
Joe McElderry could barely sing the song that will be his first number one for grinning. But after five months that began with 200,000 applications from mostly deluded wannabes and ended with more than 10 million votes cast over the weekend, only the homunculus from South Shields himself could have been surprised to be declared this year’s possessor of the X Factor. Not even his gracious opponent, the Matt Damon lookalike Olly Murs, seemed shocked. As for the show’s proprietor Simon Cowell, although he was officially Olly’s mentor, he looked relieved. In a contest almost derailed by a tuneless novelty act, Jedward, the best singer won. But it took a real star to put the series in perspective. To fill the supposedly agonising gap between last song sung and last vote counted, The X Factor hired Sir Paul McCartney as cabaret. Going on to a video summary of his career more befitting a contestant than a Beatle, and an ovation from the judges that was simultaneously standing and grovelling,
