for thinking there is something really dodgy about the x-factor this year....

[AliGrylls]

It is really strange the way all of Simon's acts are still in and everyone else's acts are slowly disappearing.

Lucy had a great voice, Rachel last week again lovely voice.

Which leaves in JEdward (how did they manage to survive), Lloyd (only appeals to 12 year old girls with topshop knickers to be wet), Stacey (lovely though she is, she is v nervous) + all of Simon's acts.

Maybe he leaves his phone on auto re-dial for his acts and the one week Danyl was in bottom two was when he forgot to do it.

I agree that Simon took a gamble on the public vote and hoped Lucie would go, even though he knew she was good - she is competition for his acts. Next in his sights will be Joe, the best singer left in.

Why bother with the judges at all? Put it to the public vote every week.
Simon would have been well narked if one of the other judges had done the same thing with one of his acts in the bottom two vs J & E.

It's annoying that he will get soooooo much publicity for the show for doing this. I can imagine his smug face as the money keeps rolling in.

But the judges are there for entertainment as well as the singers. They are "co-stars". They are the "celebrity" factor. The producers are very cunning - they have the Evil One, the Likeable one, etc.

They realised after Sharon left that the one big demographic missing from the viewers was males 14-25, and so getting Top FMM/Loaded Totty in as the female judges was a masterstroke.

Simon Cowell lost MASSIVE amounts of credibility last night.
Incredible hypocrisy.
You can't bleat on about it being a singing competition and behave like that.
You can't say you are going to judge by the last performance and then not.
You can't whinge about John and Edward and then support them at the cost of a talented singer.

Simon probably is mentoring the winning act and Lucie was unlikely to win. I don't think fixing is unnecessary.

Ah well, I'll be watching Doctor Who next Sunday instead of X Factor. woop.

I have never watched this crap. The rot set in with the appalling Stars In Their Eyes about 10 years ago, and though one decent, listenable pop act came out of the whole talent-show-audition format (GIrls Aloud, though TBH it didn't mattter which five adequate, passably pretty girls got picked, the talent was the songwriters and whoever had the wits to actually spend money on songwriters and producers rather than just churning out 'classic' covers like the usual one-hit-wonder winners.)

Totally agree with you there [Tambajam]

Stars in their Eyes... gawd, I'd forgotten about that... It was the X-Factor of its day, wasn't it?

Agree Girls Aloud have survived because of the ingenuity of their songwriters and the less-than-obvious/formulaic song choices (it takes "Biology" three minutes to get to the chorus, "Sound of the Underground" has a surf guitar over a drum-and-bass beat, "The Show" is six songs in one, etc.). Although I'd say four passably pretty girls and one lustrous goddess.

It won't clash with Doctor Who, btw. That'll be on 7-8, with X-factor on 8-9.

Thanks UQD... but by the time I've got the boys to bed, it will be 8-ish. Thank goodness for sky+

Simon wins no matter which act wins

I think that Simon has now lost all credibility. You can't, in one breath, say that you will judge on the performance and then choose not to do so and pass it back to the public vote - what's the point in asking the judges to choose? Deadlock should only be used in exceptional circumstances.

Even though it has always been the case, the public are not very forgiving when they are manipulated so transparently. I fully expect an "I admit it, I made a mistake" press release sometime this week. However, the decision wont be reversed and Jedward will carry on getting the show masses of publicity despite being the antithesis of what the show is about.

Finally, I pray that the press and public don't persecute Jedward - they have absolutely no control over this siutation and are just 17 year old boys.

1 - Jedward will not win so keeping them in means Simmon's boys have more chance near the end

2 - keeping them in and causing controversy does things like what we are doing now - gets everybody talking and watching to see what will happen next.

Boycotting myself and watching Strictly instead - much better programme anyway!