In these reality singing shows, sometimes the panelists are the ones sent packing. Over the weekend, comments made by judges Natalia Kills and her husband Willy Moon on the New Zealand edition of The X-Factor sparked a wave of backlash by harshly critiquing a contestant. While the actions of these judges were completely unnecessary, the subsequent reactions by both associates of the show and the media shine a ray of hope that bullying is finally being looked upon with the severity it deserves.

The source of the controversy started after contestant Joe Irvine’s performance. After the other judges gave their respective opinions, Kills bashed Irvine’s clothing, accusing him of replicating the style from her husband. Moon then chimed in, calling his style “cheap and creepy.” The audience began heckling their comments, and eventually fellow judge Melanie Blatt voiced her support for Irvine.

The Internet erupted into criticism soon after, and many users on social media sites such as Twitter and Youtube demanded that Kills and Moon be fired from X-Factor. A petition on Change.org garnered over 77,000 signatures. Eventually X-Factor­ took action, and fired Kills and Moon from the show.

Even though this situation spawned from negativity, it ended with a positive outcome. The one good thing to come out of this whole situation is that a large amount of people stood up against bullying. Not only did the audience and Blatt voice their disdain for the criticism, but a large number of Internet users vocalized their contempt towards bullying. If this many people in the general population see bullying as a problem and go as far as getting two people fired from their jobs to stop it, then maybe more people are wanting to take an initiative to prevent it schools.

According to Bullyingstatistics.org, suicide is the 3^rd leading cause for death, and ABC News says that 30% of students are either victims of bullying or bullies themselves. This number needs to be greatly reduced, and if the reactions to this situation are any indicator, then we may be headed in the right direction.