X Factor Judge Lashes Out At Contestant For Looking Like Her Husband
You would expect contestants to be crossed out and eliminated by judges from the talent show X Factor but how about a judge being sacked after a contestant’s performance? That’s what happened at New Zealand’s X Factor where not just one but two judges were sacked from the show following a backlash on their remarks to contestant Joe Irvine.
Irvine sang Michael Buble’s Cry Me a River wearing a suit and a brush up do to the apparent disgust of judge Natalia Kills who accused Irvine of copying her husband and fellow judge Wily Moon. “We have a doppelganger in our midst,” said Natalia. “As an artist who respects creative integrity and intellectual property, I am disgusted at how much you’ve copied my husband. From the hair to the suit, do you not have any value or respect for originality?“
Moon then stepped up and backed up his wife. “It’s like Norman Bates dressing up in his mother’s clothing, it feels a little creepy and I feel like you are going to stitch someone’s skin to your face and then kill everybody in the audience,” he said. X Factor judge and former All Saints singer Melanie Blatt stood up for Irvine and said he looked better than Moon to the applause of the audience.
After that controversial episode of X Factor-NZ, viewers took to Twitter to express their dissatisfaction over the judges, especially Kills’ remarks. A petition to remove her on the show also circulated online. MediaWorks, which owns the rights to X Factor in Australasia, and the show’s broadcaster TV3 were quick to respond. On the following episode Kills and Moon were no longer on the show.
“While the judges on X Factor are expected to provide critiques of the performances, we will not tolerate such destructive tirades from any of the judges…We no longer have confidence that Kills and Moon are the right people to perform the role of X Factor judges and they will leave the show, effective immediately,” said MediaWorks chief executive Mark Weldon, who also owns and operates TV3.
FremantleMedia, owner of the X factor franchise, stated it fully supports TV3’s decision. The two remaining judges, Blatt and Stan Walker, will take over the show while waiting for the new judges to be announced.
