Matt, Cher, Rebecca and the soon to be X-celebrities

At least 15 million people will watch this weekend’s ‘X Factor’ finals, which will earn €30 million in advertising revenue. On Monday, though, most of the stars we’ve got to know so well will fade fast into obscurity

I COULD deliver a three-hour note-free talk about this year's The X Factor. In the past 12 hours alone I have learned without particularly wanting to that One Direction will duet with Justin Bieber on tonight's show; that the food website Just-Eat is making commemorative pizzas for this weekend's final, including the Mozz-Cher-rella, the Rebecca Fergus-Supreme, the Matt Feast and the One-Dough-rection; that Cher Lloyd was "in floods of tears" when she returned to her old primary school to meet fans; and that Matt's girlfriend has dumped him.

I have more insight into these people’s lives than into my own.

Since the first programme in this series was screened, on August 21st, these details and lots of others have seeped through from newspaper headlines, overheard conversations and the unrelenting hum of the modern media. The X Factoris pop-cultural contagion.

At least 15 million viewers in the UK and Ireland will tune in tonight and tomorrow (by comparison, 17.7 million tuned in to the BBC on UK election night in May, and 17.9 million watched the World Cup final in July).

The ad revenue from the two shows will be worth about €30 million. A 30-second slot for the show normally costs €161,200, which rises to €285,900 for the final. This week, ITV reportedly sold slots for its live Coronation Street broadcast for around €120,000.

As formulaic as a James Bond film, as cliched as a superhero comic strip and as easy to follow as a Punch and Judy show, The X Factorsuperbly engages our time, energy and money.

This isn’t just about some wannabes putting on their best karaoke voices and giving it “110 per cent” for their three minutes of stage time. It’s about their backgrounds, friends, families, doubts and dreams – in other words the “journey” through life to this point. And we get to pull the strings.

A media research and strategy agency, Brand Driver, has just examined the show's allure. It found that one in 10 of those who have voted would miss a friend's wedding to watch The X Factor; 45 per cent of viewers cry at contestants' stories; 73 per cent get annoyed when contestants are voted off early.

Brand Driver concludes that our connection with The X Factor"appears to parallel the course of a romantic affair — with all the heightened emotion and irrational feeling that comes with it".

It also seems to offer us some control, an element that otherwise appears to be missing from our lives right now. We can right a wrong, and reward or punish contestants, by using or withholding our premium-rate text vote.

The X Factorcrosses all class divides. A third of its viewers have degrees and many postgraduates say they are viewers. Four in 10 viewers describe themselves as professionals or management. And, contrary to popular wisdom, men vote often more than women.

Despite its huge sociocultural reach and impact the show is routinely derided. It is described as coarse, vulgar and little better than a Victorian freak show. Such criticism has moved on little from the reaction of the middle class to the rise of penny-dreadful publications in the 19th century, or the disparaging of early cinema and rap music.

The reaction from “serious” musicians is equally ridiculous. The message from Sting, Damon Albarn and others is that the show is not a reflection of how the music industry works, that it does not prepare contestants for the rigours of recording and touring, and that it raises hopes only to dash them cruelly.

But we all know the contestants are playthings to be discarded the moment the credits roll. We’ve had our fun with them. If they go on to have semi-successful careers, well and good, but their skills are better suited to the pantomime circuit.

They flounder in the “real” world because they existed for us only within the dynamics of the show. Last year’s final was watched by 16 million people in the UK and Ireland, but who can remember the winner’s name? You really have to think hard to remember Joe McElderry.

The portfolios of Matt, Cher, Rebecca and One Direction will soon be chucked into the skip outside the X Factorstudios. Reality TV has no time for sentiment or nostalgia, as the show's previous winners Steve Brookstein and Leon Jackson could attest.