Big changes at the X Factorprovide plenty of food for thought for VICTORIA GALLAGHER-O'HOULIHAN

THE START OF a new season of The X Factoris a difficult time in anyone's life. Like a new infant relative, you coo over it or point and laugh when it does something stupid, but it's really only a plaything, an adorable prop to be brought in and quickly whisked away again to wherever it is babies or Tulisa go to get their high-street outfits.

In the end, no matter what they're wearing, it takes ages to warm up to each batch of X Factorhopefuls. The early rounds are just too confusing. So many foster homes and dying grandmothers to pick from. So many bitches. Who will we hate most? What a shame those Whip- My-Hair-Back-and-Forth girls didn't make it past the auditions. They had bags of potential.

So, every year, it's the same old thing: until we're a good bit into the boot camp stages, The X Factoris just a shapeless, bloody mess. Nobody much likes pre-Halloween X Factorbecause experience has taught us that those early weeks require a massive emotional investment for something we'll eventually dump by remote control or text.

This year, our complicated relationship with the spot-the- loser rounds of The X Factorhas been made super complicated by several key personnel changes. Seriously, are we supposed to sit at home thinking "Wow, Gary Barlow is just like Simon Cowell. I can hardly tell the difference"?

It’s just not good enough, people. Ask yourself the question; is this the kind of world you want to live in? A *Just Like* world?

Is it okay that Tulisa is *just like* Cheryl Cole except she's actually the squirrelly one from N-Dubz? It is cool that the Rugby World Cup is *just like* the Six Nations but with lots of crap filler teams? Is it fine that Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spyis *just like* Mad Menbut with jumble sale clothes and a plot that makes no sense? Is it acceptable that crisps are *just like* food except they're eaten by fat poor people and advertised by women with sagging breasts?

Sucks, don’t it? But get used to it. During the uneventful stretch between 9/11 celebrations and Halloween charity balls, *Just Like* is often as much as we can hope for.

I blame the recession. And that guy who used to sing with Queen who isn’t running for president now. And Jessie J. And those Libyan types who keep fighting on the news.

Chillax, people. Where do they find the time now that The X Factoris back on?