Without a doubt, this has been coming for many years: the large scale dissection of talent shows, dispelling the illusion they sell to both contestants and viewers – that they are participating in something positive, as ordinary people achieve their dreams.

For weeks, the subject has been trending in the media, as former contestants lashed out at the show and the company behind it, Syco (Simon Cowell’s phonically appropriate entertainment octopus). They signalled abusive contracts, medical negligence, racism, homophobia, financial exploitation and degradation in general.

This, however, isn’t happening in a vacuum. These short statements made by people by now very famous were preceded by the detailed disclosure last year from Zoe Alexander, finally speaking out regarding her mistreatment and the years of harassment she endured as a result of being framed by the show.

Contracts resembling indentured servitude

For a deep analysis of a leaked contract put before contestants for Britain’s Got Talent, also created by Simon Cowell, please watch this video, keeping in mind that when entering talent shows, people don’t expect to be treated in bad faith. It’s not just legalese – the effects on many who fell prey unsuspectingly are well known.

Among the shocking issues, these stand out:

  1. Contestants agree that the company can use their image and footage to portray them in any way – which allows for complete misrepresentation of an individual and turning them into an international target of mockery on purpose.
  2. Contestants who proceed to certain stages lose their rights to anything they have ever created prior to going on the show, namely their life’s work to date and all their work until the contract ends.
  3. Contestants reaching the semi-finals cannot express themselves in public without permission (not even in small ways such as posting on social media); they are silenced until the contract ends. They also can’t post or appear in photos (even family photos) without Syco’s permission.
  4. Contestants cannot speak publicly if they are mistreated and cannot sue the company no matter what.

Deception, humiliation and harassment

One of the most popular features on talent shows is the compilation of the season’s failed auditions. These are portrayed as people simply walking in, some with no talent at all, and some with glaring mental problems.

Regarding the X Factor in particular, as Zoe Alexander explains (and has been talked about but largely ignored for years), every person taking part in those auditions has been hand-picked, after auditioning twice before and making arrangements with producers.This is not a light-hearted matter of walking in there, clowning around and ending up on TV. These people’s hopes are raised time and time again before they end up in front of the “judges”. And some, as mentioned, are plainly mentally unwell.

In Zoe’s case, she was set up, by being mandated to sing a song which would create a certain image, and being selectively asked questions which would add to said image, everything else being cut out. They made her look ridiculous. Everyone was in on the joke, as she describes, apart from her and her family, and of course, the audience. When she realised it and broke down, they aggressively and callously filmed her, as that was the desired effect. Smears in the media, years of harassment and a suicide attempt followed, until last year, when she finally broke the silence and went public.

Two different publications interviewed her, one being the disgusting Daily Mail (unlike many people today, I don’t overuse the word “disgusting”, but in this case it’s deserved). Despite telling them what had happened , they published lies, for brownie points presumably. “It’s not what you said; it’s what we say you said”.

One can only wonder how these people sleep at night, or how they would feel if their loved ones were lured and smeared that way, with such a drastic impact on their lives.

Editing the footage to misrepresent someone’s character

A creator with enough technical expertise analysed Zoe’s audition and concluded that it had likely been manipulated – this is the video. This was done to stage certain gestures and portray her as extremely aggressive, which resulted in a media frenzy at the time and years of mockery afterwards. If you scroll down in the comment section, he later points to more evidence of editing. It is also known that they film certain parts of the “finished product” later and add them to create the appearance of a more dramatic situation; they did so in this case as well, adding words and gestures the “judges” had never uttered/made during the actual audition.

Is anyone surprised by those contracts in light of this?

There is no consideration for the person’s life and the backlash they will receive daily from their own community over being portrayed in this manner, to the point of not feeling safe anywhere.

Other videos from former contestants described overworking and dehydration, which can make people oversensitive or erratic; these tactics were used in order to portray them as unstable. Another video described how someone who had auditioned as a minor had an epileptic fit on the floor – the crew asked his mother to lean over him looking “more concerned” for the camera. Quite chilling.

Remember Lou Pearlman?

Yes, that Lou Pearlman, responsible for the boy band phenomenon of the 90s, who died in prison after defrauding people of their life savings with his Ponzi scheme. The machinations of manufacturing success, appealing to young audiences, have been known for a very long time – yet people still support such projects.

The exact same occurred with the bands he put together: they were overworked, financially exploited and micromanaged, unable to express themselves freely and having to stick to a false image the public had been sold.

“This is normal”

Certain voices argue against demonising Simon Cowell, given that the entertainment industry is a harsh environment by default, and always has been. Syco is therefore no different, according to them, than any other giant sepia hovering about for prey, in the form of naive and hopeful individuals.

True enough, the only image he personally evokes is of a villain from Home Alone 3, freshly after receiving a haircut with a lawn mower (please excuse the comparison):

Besides the fact that an industry which ruins people mentally should not be perceived as normal, I completely disagree on the issue of personal responsibility.

This guy came face to face with many of his targets, whose mental health was so damaged by their premeditated humiliation on his show that some took their own lives and others attempted. Lives were irreversibly damaged.

Every single time he looked in someone’s direction and went through with demolishing them, he made a choice – a choice to see them as objects, disregarding their humanity. A choice to disregard the impact his profiteering would have on that specific individual. Just like scammers and cat-fishing “artists” make a choice every single time they scam.

People like him get off on power.

They get off on knowing their targets have no recourse, as the media is in cahoots with their companies, as shown above. Any injustice and act of cruelty they commit against ordinary people can be covered up.