I AGREE with Mr Lawson that Ray and Leona should be congratulated for their efforts on The X Factor' (Compulsive Watch, December 28). I would also point out that this compulsive viewing' is not for all of us.

The X Factor is promoted as an entertainment programme; it is in fact a clever marketing strategy by record companies.

In exchange for a recording contract they get cheap publicity over several months. The winner is guaranteed a number one because of the audience size.

The X Factor, and programmes like it, are nothing more than record companies manipulating the public into making them money.

They don't care about the artist: look at Shayne Ward and Steve Brookstein. Both scored number ones before releasing albums containing many covers before being dropped by their labels and returning to obscurity.

The same can be said for practically every reality act with the exception of Girls Aloud. Sadly they have recently also relied on a diet of covers and songs written for them.

I wish Leona well but I doubt she is a "future megastar". She will most likely release an album which will do moderately well before she fades from the limelight, replaced by next year's X Factor.

I've got nothing against entertaining programmes, but one that humiliates contenders in the early stages (even though they put themselves up for it), then contributes to declining music standards and is one big advert for music industry fat cats is not the answer. I'd rather see a return to the old Saturday nights, where entertainment was just that.

The charts don't need reality stars; we need more bands that write and perform their own material and have worked hard to get where they are, not handed fame on a plate.

Philip Lickley, Wheatlands Grove, York.