Journalist Charlie Brooker said in the series finale of his BBC Four programme Newswipe: "thanks to a combination of our backwards, appearance-led culture and a nakedly manipulative set-up VT which made her out to be a comedy loser, Susan Boyle's performance soon became the number one talking point for every tiresome prick in the land [...] because apparently it's a ****ing miracle that women who aren't conventionally attractive are also capable of exhibiting any kind of skill whatsoever."[