I love Dermot. I love that he’s really good at his job without being annoying and at least seems to be a genuine guy. Towards the end of his time presenting Big Brother you really got the feeling he couldn’t give a damn anymore; he became almost openly contemptuous of the housemates (if not the whole show) and the meltdown into dry, dry sarcasm was brilliant to watch. On the X Factor we see his soft side – who better than Dermie to give a shivering nervous hopeful a solid hug as they stumble out of the audition room? And when he actually started crying when talking to schoolteacher Bev on last year’s show I thought he couldn’t get any more appealing. I was wrong. He’s pissed off The X Factor, apparently, by taking the piss out of all the tacky sob-stories about dead relatives…
Appearing on ITV2′s “Celebrity Juice” he shocked a (rather oversensitive) live studio audience when he said: “It’s past 9 o’clock, I can say what I f***ing want. So, I don’t care what your dream is. I don’t care what you want to sing. And I don’t care about your dead relative.”
An audience member told The People: “Everyone knew he was talking about X Factor guests who burst into tears and tell terrible life stories before they sing. To make any comment about dead relatives, even in a lighthearted way, is plain stupid.”
Someone’s plain stupid. The People claims Simon Cowell was “fuming” when he heard what Dermot said. But an X Factor spokeswoman’s remarks don’t seem too stern. “Dermot was making fun of himself. It absolutely wasn’t aimed at anyone else and no offense was intended.”
To read Paul’s review of Celebrity Juice, go here.
Join TVScoop on Facebook for exclusive competitions and gossip
Dermot’s a switched on guy – he knows the X-factor game and how to play it, but I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing he could throw the script away and just improvise the whole show. Understandably he felt he had outgrown BBLB (and T4 before that…I remember him getting his BAGA 4 live on a Sunday afternoon in between Dawson’s Creek repeats…those were the days…(!)), but the anarchy and to a certain extent, freedom, he enjoyed with that show (being Executive Producer must’ve helped, although exhaustion set in after the first week or so) was far more fun to watch and I would argue a far better showcase of his talent than the automaton-Leary he has to be on the X-Factor (the Xtra Factor is really a much better show for old-skool Dermy – his personality really shines on that show). I hate to say “sell-out”, but larger audience figures are the only thing Dermot’s gained with this gig…
…that and some truly abominable suits, if memory serves from last year’s live rounds…
Ha. I love it. An X Factor spokewoman says “Dermot knows he shot himself in the foot and here’s a healthy dose of barely credible backtracking to prove it.” (Note: this quote may be made up)