Live from beautiful Melbourne, Nic and Joseph are guestless as they download an illegal copy of this week’s episode, watch it during the day time, and spend longer talking about Thirsty Merc, drivers licenses and nap-ettiquitte than they ever thought they would on this trip. They also start a new movement. #JustBeard. Let’s go viral, … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at the television roundtable to discuss week seven on X Factor NZ: Streets Fruttare Sounds of Summer edition.// Robyn Gallagher on the Spooky Haunted Forest One of the big differences between X Factor and other TV talent shows is the staging. X Factor doesn’t just give its performers a few smooth moves and a microphone. Instead there’s … Read more
Dom wore shorts! That was the biggest revelation and bombshell of the night, one which was both better than last week and also cemented the sense that this new look X Factor is going to be mostly drama-free. It’s not a disaster. There were a handful of great performances, and Dom, Mel and Stan have … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at the television roundtable to discuss week six on X Factor NZ, and our new additions to the judging panel. Eli Mathewson on the Tough Calls The toughest criticism so far came for a completely unexpected victim… “You disgust me. You make me sick. You ruin everything I love about the world. I want … Read more
Brand new judges. The same old singers. Slightly different podcast guests. With Joseph Moore fleeing our smiley and sanitised bully-free country to the mean streets of Melbourne, Nic Sampson is joined by Spinoff staff writer Alex Casey and Perlina Lau, soon to be social media presenter on the new Paul Henry breakfast show. Together they … Read more
After a sorry week on X Factor, Robyn Gallagher heads way north to televised music comp perfection. // The Eurovision Song Contest is easily the greatest television musical extravaganza, but a couple of months earlier there’s another show that’s almost as good. It’s Melodifestivalen, the Swedish national competition to select their Eurovision entry – and … Read more
Has any TV show fallen as far or landed as hard as X Factor NZ did over the last seven days? We watched one of the 20 or so most controversial moments in our televisual history last week; this Sunday we sat and watched a bunch of mostly mediocre singers singing mostly mediocre songs, while … Read more
Time is a Flat Bloner This morning Twitter blew up with the news that True Detective would feature an exquisite orgy scene in season two. Hiring a multitude of porn stars to fill the roles, The Hollywood Reporter stated that the show promises a “a deliriously vast, Eyes Wide Shut-caliber orgy sequence involving dozens of naked … Read more
The Spinoff received word that Natalia Kills and Willy Moon would be leaving the country last night, so dispatched Don Rowe to watch their final moments on our soil. // Like great dark bats they swooped through Auckland International Airport. He wore leather and she sheltered beneath a wide-brimmed hat. Both wore sunglasses. They walked … Read more
Tuesday, March 10, 2015 was just an ordinary evening on X Factor twitter. Jokes were made, memes were shared, the #xfactornz hashtag was enthusiastically tacked on to these jokes and memes, for fear of our hilarious content floating, unheard, into the abyss. We all rejoiced as national hero Joe Irvine was put through to the live … Read more
After the most climactic 24 hours in X Factor NZ history, Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson were joined by The Spinoff editor Duncan Greive to discuss the double judge elimination, the first live show and the debut of our sworn enemy, X Factor NZ analysis show Xtra Factor. The episode also features Alex Casey’s excellent … Read more
The Spinoff knights sprint to the television roundtable to pitch new judges they think should step in for Natalia Kills and Willy Moon after their sacking this afternoon. // Who will be the first scabs to cross the X Factor NZ picket line and take up pen, paper and listening face in place of those martyrs … Read more
Hayden Donnell tracks down various other disgusting artists who have copied X Factor NZ judge Willy Moon’s idiosyncratic style. // Natalia Kills was just saying what we were all thinking. The Thor to Mel Blatt’s weary Odin is getting cyber-bullied this morning for telling Joe Irvine a well-known fact: her husband Willy Moon invented ‘wearing … Read more
Duncan Greive breaks down the performances from last night’s X Factor NZ and power ranks the participants Natalia Kills: “Ladies and gentlemen, I’m just going to state the obvious and say we’ve got a doppelganger in our midst. As an artist who respects creative integrity and intellectual property I am disgusted by how much you … Read more
On Tuesday our intrepid podcasters, Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson, dutifully watched the 12th episode of X Factor NZ and recorded the finest installment yet of our smash hit pod, ‘After the Factor’. They then went to sleep, as humans often do in the nighttime. The following morning Moore was awoken by news he was … Read more
The debut of Duncan Greive’s weekly X Factor power rankings, which will drop Monday mornings and serve as a guide to where the show’s momentum lies. Season two of X Factor New Zealand started recording months ago, and already feels like it’s been going for years. The show has already run for 14 hours, versus the 18 … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at the television roundtable to discuss Judges’ Retreat Week on X Factor NZ, and look towards our Top 12 contestants. // Eli Mathewson on Lili’s Lockdown Lili stands inside a Bangkok hotel when a sudden realisation seeps over her. With all the excitement of a beach holiday, a chance to plan some cheap dental and tough … Read more
With the shocking departure of Jazzy “Jazzy” Acton from our screens last night, beaming Archie Hill represents the last of the 14-year-olds standing on stick thin, vinyl-trousered legs at this year’s X Factor. He absolutely ripped Ed Sheeran a new one at the auditions, before walking on stage and into our hearts with ‘Blank Space’ … Read more
My Life in TV is a weekly feature interview with a member of the television industry. This week, Alex talked to X Factor NZ host Dominic Bowden. // There is no denying Dominic Bowden has earned the title of New Zealand’s National Host. After early beginnings on kids TV show Squirt, he moved to hosting … Read more
Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson’s X Factor-centric After the Factor podcast is joined by Guy Williams, star of Jono and Ben, voice of The Edge and (most importantly) prolific X Factor live-tweeter. Together they break down the third week of X Factor. Topics include boot camp happenings, Avatar sex and Dom Bowden’s meadow apology. They also rerank … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at the television roundtable to discuss boot camp week of The X Factor NZ.// Robyn Gallagher on The Forgotten Four During the first boot camp episode, we were very quickly introduced to the 48 contestants who were going on to the merciless six-seat challenge. They were all familiar faces from the audition shows, but … Read more
That Girl is a Monster After her luxury Sound of Music showcase at the Oscars on Monday, it was confirmed yesterday that Lady Gaga has signed on for the latest season of American Horror Story: Hotel, the fifth series in the Ryan Murphy anthology. Little else is known about the project, with Gaga that first … Read more
Earlier this week an unusual auction briefly appeared on TradeMe: a set of used sheets, towels and a feedback form from Natalia Kills and Willy Moon. Alex Casey tracked down the man responsible. / Notwithstanding the furore enveloping ex-con Slim Shaedy, there was far more more disturbing news out of The X Factor NZ universe … Read more
Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson’s X Factor-centric After the Factor podcast is joined by Spinoff’s staff writer Alex Casey to break down the second and final week of X Factor auditions. Topics include the latest semi-painful-but-much-improved batch of auditions. We also rank the judges, hypothesise about the Simon Cowell/Fuller relationship and Nic and Joseph interview … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at the television roundtable to discuss from the much-improved second week of X Factor NZ. // Jack Riddell on Darren Smyth This is Darren Smyth, 36 from Point England. He’s one of many who you won’t see on X Factor this year. He was accepted into the audition round, cameras followed him back … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at television roundtable to reveal their hopes, dreams and insights from the first week of The X Factor NZ. // Joseph Harper on TrendPrince Holy shit Trend Prince dot com is a real thing. There are no jokes anymore. Just real things that are kind of fucking terrifying. Trend Prince doing a rap is … Read more
Joseph Moore and Nic Sampson’s After the Factor podcast is joined by The Spinoff’s editor, Duncan Greive, to break down the opening trio of episodes. Topics approached include the drudge of wading through the bad-but-not-terrible contestants, the early backstories, the arrival of Fare Thee Well, aka #KiwiHaim and the shocking decision to deny Trend Prince more … Read more
Alex Casey thought she should probably write something about The X Factor NZ, so with Twitter’s help, she did. / Last night, like 305,000 other people up and down the country, I sat down and enjoyed The X Factor NZ premiere. And it was… fine. I always forget that the first audition stages just sort … Read more
The Spinoff knights meet at television roundtable to reveal their hopes, dreams and insights before the new season of The X Factor NZ. // Nic Sampson on the Sponsored Car: Let’s face it, the entire X Factor competition is just a way to get around not paying actors to be in various commercials. Why cough up for an … Read more