Ever Decreasing Circles

The news that Cheryl Cole is to replace Sharon Osbourne represents yet another milestone on the path of reality TV. Now, wannabe popstars on the X-Factor will be judged by a woman who is sitting there because she was a winner of a popband reality TV show. And the woman she has replaced only became famous because she was in a reality TV documentary. And her husband once ate a BAT! But that's not relevant here.

In a way breeding a microcosm of reality TV talent that judges itself might help to suppress it from the all-consuming monster it once threatened to become – the Lloyd Webber, Summer Strallen TV placement story being the zenith / nadir of this.

And call me shallow but if I am forced to endure these shows by others, which I perennially am, then at least Cheryl is nicer to look at than Sharon, or indeed, Louis Walsh.