Whether you’re a sucker for reality music television shows or think they are the worst thing to hit the screen in your lounge room, recent comments made by two judges to a contestant will boil your blood.
X Factor New Zealand saw hopeful Joe Irvine perform ‘Cry Me A River’ (ho, irony) and after he gave it all, married artistic couple Natalia Kills and Willy Moon absolutely slammed him in unquestionably one of the most brutal attacks on music reality television, berating Irvine for apparently copying one of the judge’s dress style, going as far to say that Irvine “made them sick” and that he looks like he’d “kill everybody in the audience.”
Since the episode aired, there’s been a huge outcry from the public who are applying pressure to TV3 to sack both Kills and Moon, labelling them bullies.
As NZ Herald writes, TV3 issued a statement on Facebook saying it did not condone bullying, “Following tonight’s episode of The X Factor NZ we received a huge amount of feedback about comments made by our judges. The nature of live television can be unpredictable and we appreciate you taking the time to voice your opinion. TV3 does not condone bullying and are currently on-site with Joe who is doing well.”
In addition to this, viewers have rallied against Kills and Moon, with two separate online petitions calling for them to be booted from the show appearing showing collectively nearly 100,000 signees already from Facebook and change.org.
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Kills, absurdly enraged over the appearance of Irvine, who looks pretty much like any sharp dude at the moment, fired hateful shots into the singer, “we have a doppelgänger in our midst, as an artist I expect creative integrity and intellectual property I am disgusted how much you have copied my husband from the hair, to the suit, do you not have any value or respect for originality? You’re a laughing stock!”
Despite deafening “boos” from the crowd, Kills continued to kill, “I personally found it absolutely artistically atrocious. I am embarrassed to be sitting here in your presence having to even dignify you with an answer of my opinion” Irvine managing to smile despite looking like he was about to fall apart on stage, thanked her as Moon, the apparent style-muse of Irvine continued on the tirade.
Referring to Irvine as a the murderer from Psycho, Moon went on, “It’s like Norman Bates dressing up in his mother’s clothing and I feel like you’re going to stick someone’s skin to your face and then kill everybody in the audience.”
Thankfully, the remainder of the panel including Aussie Stan Walker and Melanie Blatt don’t share the same psychotic hate for Irvine, Blatt coming to the rescue assuring him that she believes in him and that Irvine is “actually, dressed better than her husband.”
We’ve seen plenty of performers lose their shit with judges, but these kinds of comments from those who are employed to provide encouraging feedback is what’s really disgusting.
Check out the incredibly uncomfortable video below:
Despite the harsh comments, Irvine appears to be doing alright:
I survived the Kills! #xfactornz pic.twitter.com/4wxnvjhqGw
— joe irvine (@jooe63_joe) March 15, 2015