Susanna accepts the support
Scott had backed Susanna Reid despite her not being able to visit the studio, and now she had responded. Her message welcomed the support, acknowledged the jinx and ended with fingers crossed that they could break it.
The rather formal tone entertained Scott and Chris, but it was enough: Susanna knew exactly what she had been signed up for. After so many recently eliminated favourites, the show now had a Strictly contestant carrying the Mills endorsement.
Rough Copy take the risk too
The same offer went to X Factor’s Rough Copy. Joey rang after hearing that Scott wanted to support the group, at which point Scott and Chris felt obliged to explain the evidence. Being publicly chosen by this programme had not recently been good for a contestant’s life expectancy.
Joey hesitated at the scale of the warning but ultimately backed his group. Rough Copy could break the curse, he said, and he was also up for an Innuendo Bingo appearance. Scott even offered him the chance to quietly nominate a rival act who could receive the dangerous endorsement instead, but Rough Copy remained the choice.
The conversation also covered the X Factor house, Big Band Week and the strange experience of living in rooms previously occupied by contestants. The important part for Scott was simpler: he now had two live tests of his curse running at once.
X Factor Serbia is real
Another apparently unlikely piece of X Factor business was confirmed. Scott’s connection with X Factor Serbia was real, and the show dug out a promotional clip of Louis Walsh announcing that the format was coming to Serbia.
It was precisely the kind of international television detail that sounded as though it ought to belong in Real or No Real. Instead it was part of Scott’s actual CV, and he was delighted to have the proof on air.
Attractive housemates and horrible food
An app promising to help people rent spare rooms to attractive housemates prompted a less glamorous discussion about what would happen if flatmates started dating — and then stopped. Listener Gemma was about to go to France and was already uncomfortable about her boyfriend potentially filling a room with a female housemate while she was away.
Scott and Chris then put their own memories under pressure. The rule was to name enough X Factor groups in ten seconds or eat a food they hated. Scott’s enemy was rice pudding; Chris’s was hummus, still notorious after a previous encounter. They rattled through group names, but Chris eventually lost and had to face the hummus.
A later Strictly round went worse and a wrong answer involving David Seaman ended with Tabasco entering the punishment. Chris was distinctly less cheerful by the end of the experiment.
Real or No Real without Charlie
Charlie Sloth’s walkout from the previous day was still being discussed, along with his threat to make a “fattist” song with Big Narstie, but Real or No Real continued.
Among the claims, an incident involving a sausage at a fireworks factory was real, gorillas being played love songs was not, and a 47-year-old mother with a One Direction tattoo was real. Scott took 10 points and Chris 30, while Charlie’s absence remained almost as noticeable as the answers.
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