Usually, X Factor kills are quick and clinical. Craig Colton last week, for example, was like watching a free range chicken have its throat slit. You winced as the knife went in, but consoled yourself with the thought that he’d had a decent life.
Not so Janet Devlin. By the end she resembled nothing so much as a Pamplona bull, dazed and staggering under the weight of six weeks worth of knives being thrust in whichever way she turned.
Regular readers will know that for those last six weeks we haven’t quite been able to believe the evidence of our eyes. The assault on Janet has been so prolonged and relentless, and so unexpected given her favourable treatment before and at the start of the lives, we thought we had to consider whether there might have been a hidden agenda.
There wasn’t. The most obvious explanation for it looking like producers wanted Janet out – i.e. producers wanted Janet out – was the correct one. Props to those of our commenters – notably bunnyman, fiveleaves and Kev – who repeatedly insisted that the show’s behaviour should be taken at face value.
While that obvious explanation was correct, there is another conundrum for which the answer is much less obvious, at least to us. What made them decide they wanted Janet out?
It’s worth reminding ourselves of the eight minutes of prime screentime lavished on the audition of the the shy and nervous young girl from the middle of nowhere in Northern Ireland, the way Kelly practically climaxed during Janet’s bootcamp performance, and how she told Janet at judges houses – a tear rolling down her cheek – “I want to raise your confidence… I need you to believe in yourself”.
Can it conceivably have been in producers’ minds as they put together that footage that they would spend more than half of the live shows portraying Janet as dull, bolshy and odd? It’s hard to believe.
So what went wrong? In the end it looks like it was simply an astonishing casting error, and the Janet they got somehow wasn’t the Janet they expected. But why did it take them until three weeks into the live shows to figure this out? Your suggestions are invited in the comments box below.
There was outrage aplenty in the Sofabet comments section last night about Janet’s treatment on Saturday night, but it’s outrage we can’t share. Our view is that after seven series, anyone who gets through to the lives on this show really ought to know the deal.
The deal is this: You get exposure to millions on prime time television, which you can use as a springboard to some kind of future career – in the charts, on the stage, in reality shows – if you have the nous and the talent. In return, you give up any say in how the show chooses to present you. That’s just the way it is.
Janet’s treatment may have been unpleasant, right down to the reasons given by the judges for sending her home. But we shouldn’t forget she did herself no favours with her awful ‘Every Breath You Take’ in week 4 and her flubs of lyrics in both week 5 and last night.
Still, her fans should take comfort in the fact that she appears to have got through this experience on her own terms – she shouldn’t be bitching about how she compromised her artistic integrity to wear yellow trousers and sing Katy Perry. That’s no mean feat for a 17 year old. And how many other X Factor contestants can you imagine being so hilariously disdainful of celebrity that they mutter a sarcastic “great” when they see a poster of themselves on their hometown pub, or VT that they’re “not a Christmas person” en route to switching on their hometown lights? Sofabet salutes you, Janet.
Now it’s time to look forward, and we very much like tpfkar’s idea in the comments about what the full-frontal assault on Janet and the pimping of Amelia yesterday portends:
Assuming they complete the execution of Janet tomorrow, they can then nobble Amelia next week as she comes down from the sympathy bounce, and it’s champagne all round as they’ve got Misha into the final.
We also can conclude that putting Little Mix on first was a sign of confidence, and clears the way for them to be pimped in the semi and the final without it looking too much like favouritism.
As always, there will be more in-depth thoughts to come during the week once the dust has settled. For now, though, please share your thinking in the comments box below.
Can’t help think that if Olly Murs wanted to perform with puppets, he should of had the X Factor judges in the backing band
That’s mighty quick to get such a long article up …surely you didn’t guess the ending and pre-wrote it? 😉
Well down on the weekend, but called it right completely on Saturday night and mitigated the damage on both the week and the win market. And a vote of confidence for the twitter analysis model, called the bottom 2 spot on. Hope it steered a couple of others in the right direction.
You know us, tpfkar – always first with the post-show analysis! 😉
Hi tpfkar, I took heavy losses tonight on outright and topgirl markets and didn’t want to hedge anything hoping she could still manage to escape. But I took everything back in the sing-off (it took me A LOT of investments but it payed off) – you should tried it sometimes if you believe that obvious is going to happen… only my wooden floor carved circle in the middle of the living room gets deeper and deeper 🙂
Heads up to http://xfactortracker.com/ which had Misha and Janet in the B2 for a long time.
Pretty easy to predict now. Amelia gets eliminated next week when she’s first up, Misha bounces from the pimp slot to get her in the final and she’ll be eliminated first in final, leaving a final two of Marcus and Little Mix and who knows who’ll win out of those two?
I’m confused now, today I checked on that site and Misha and Amelia were in danger while Janed third. Did they change it in the evening or so?
Re: it taking three weeks to realise they had made a casting error with Janet, I think there’s a couple of plausible explanations. Maybe they thought it would be more worthwhile taking out the fodder like Sami first. It’s also possible that Janet was doing so well in the voting that they thought she should be given a chance and try and persuade her to play the role they were asking for. She obviously turned out to be more opinionated and less malleable than they were hoping. Finally, after bigging her up so much before the live shows, it would have looked odd if they’d started assassinating her from the first live show. They’d already got rid of the second bookies favourite Amelia Lily. The long game ended up working better, as Janet gave them enough ammunition.
Hi lolhart (and abs, you make the same point below),
What surprises me, though, is how they could have failed to realise earlier that Janet was opinionated and not malleable. Don’t they have some kind of thorough vetting process before they decide to let someone through to the lives, let alone before they decide to feature them so heavily throughout auditions and bootcamp? It would seem not… or Janet did a great job of fooling them!
That’s an interesting question. Maybe because Janet has quite an awkward almost introverted personality TPTB misinterpreted it as being passive. We know most of the regular team went to the US this year and so maybe their replacements were not as skilled at figuring out who would make the “right” finalists. Or maybe Janet was actually quite clever and knew how to or was willing to play the game in the beginning
I think the producers underestimated her … who would have thought a seemingly shy and introverted 17 year old, so far away from home and family, constantly under the spotlight would remain so strong???
During the course of the live shows I dont recall her ever shedding a tear, despite forgetting lyrics, being repeatedly called boring, and dealing with her grandfather’s death … for a 17 yr old I truly believe she holds herself together really well under such pressure ….
Very different to the 17 yr old at judges houses crying as she was being told she made it to the finals …
Having said that I dont think Janet’s intention was to fool anyone, I think she tried to play along at first (like changing the colour of her hair) then just got more and more uncomfortable until she started saying no (probably starting around week 3)
Janet has just showed how important the way the show projects you prior to live shows is … it took 5 weeks for the producers to kill what they had built before live show started!!
I think they wanted her out as soon as they realised Janet just wanted to do it all her way .. from song choices, to singing, to styling .. don’t think that goes down very well in a show were every move is calculated, this year more than others.
Agree with Amelia being the next one to get the negative treatment from producers, this and Misha’s sympathy bounce will get her through to the final with LM and Marcus.
Oh and just in case you decide to do an article similar to the Wagner one last year, where you look at how a particular act was removed, here is one of the ways:
After the first round of performances, Dermot asked the judges which act had shined so far. Louis said Amelia, Tulisa and Gary said Misha and Kelly said Marcus and Little Mix.
Translation? Everyone apart from Janet.
In fairness, I don’t think them excluding Janet from that would be sabotage. Who could say she shined after that (partial) Mmmbop rendition?
The question is if that is the case, why did they have to use Janet to get Misha to the final, and not Amelia, If they can get rid of Janet this week, they could have got rid of her next week as well
Hi shoulders – I think Janet was 4th out of 5 in the voting this week, so they could eliminate her on majority vote. Assuming there won’t be a bottom 2 next week, their chances of getting her last behind Misha would be slim – so it had to be this week.
Makes sense
And the good ship Marcus etc….
I’m just getting the impression that the producers are pushing for Misha to win this.
well if that happens after all that has been sayed about misha over this series fact or fiction im not sure to great britsh public will stomch it well,and the whole cowell empire may well crumble on the contravercy alone which even he wont take.
but to be honest i would not mind if she does thinking about it!
Outrage about the show in general i think is very fair, Andrew, and certainly the point I was trying to put across. Every week has been very, very easy to predict and I’ve managed to back every single bottom 2 combo this series, and every elimination. My disgust is with the shameless distortion of the truth and the way they manipulate things. We’ve seen brutal execution after brutal execution this series. Misha has been bottom of the public vote 3 times but will now make the final. How farcical is that? You may as well not invite the public to vote. I’m intrigued with your Outright picks this series, as we are now left with 4 you have stated in previous articles are ones ‘you don’t think will win’ including Marcus. One of them has got to, so who’s your money on now? 🙂
Hi Rob, My reaction is not so much one of outrage as amused fascination that the public let them get away with it. I do wonder if they’ve pushed it a bit far this series, though.
Re our outright picks, I refer you to the intro of our 1-16 prediction piece, in which we wrote
See, we’re nothing if not consistent! 🙂
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I wrote something similar many weeks back – ‘a series of cannot wins’ 🙂 It was a good shout with Marcus – he certainly wasn’t one I had on the shortlist pre-lives. Could see he was likeable but always thought he would be jettisoned in latter stages.
Not as good as 66/1 Little Mix, Rob, hats off for that one.
As for who wins now, we will decide in due course which particular slice of humble pie to consume 😉
I have to say, this series has been the most enjoyable I’ve ever watched and Sofabet has been a big part of that.
I’m embarrassed to say I was actually really nervous/excited watching the results, which clearly indicates I need to get more of a life.
I think you are absolutely right about “death by a thousand cuts”, but maybe with a flourish at the end to finish her off.
One REALLY important point that we all need to keep an eye on:
QUOTES THAT AREN’T ATTRIBUTED TO A SPECIFIC MEDIA OUTLET.
On Saturday I spotted a piece on the Sun Online which I was surprised to see posted here as a piece from the Mirror. Turns out lots of media outlets ran this same quote about her hating the sound of her own voice. A wonderful piece of negativity to set us up nicely for the show.
Where had it come from? Wasn’t attributed to any media organisation, (and for mediay types turns out it was embargoed on PA!?!?) which makes me smell a X Factor Press Office rat.
Helping the tabloids with a nice easy story, and also keeping that negative drip drop going – Maybe?
I’ve written loads at http://www.betsfactor.com, you’re welcome to poach guys if you feel any of it is worthwhile, including some more Red and Black photos.
Love your stuff, Richard, have read everything on your site since discovering it, back to the wonderful very first post.
We will poach shamelessly this week, don’t you worry! 🙂
i wander if janet is going to go on next year FIX-FACTOR live gigs.Lets be honest she really will not wont to be there after there right royal screw over shes had from them.i for would love it if she told them to shove it,they hate her anyway and after hearing what shes proberly going to come out with in the press in the next week or so about how she treated her and stitched her up niether will she .
saying that craig wont wont it either after his screw over,or anyone else who gets shafted over the next few weeks.
at this rate there might not even be one.
yeah she will, she’ll get decent money from that
Tonight is a glorious green night.
Rob – ‘I’ve managed to back every single bottom 2 combo this series, and every elimination’. Not according to your website, you haven’t 🙂
Prophet – thanks for reading the site. I write preview pieces around mid-week and it is impossible to flag up what’s going to happen on the show – all I can do is share my pre-show thoughts. I am not Mystic Meg. XF is all about watching the show and reading the edit. Hope you backed Little Mix when I flagged them up at 66-1 e/w.
It’s my favourite time of the week, value time!! Next weeks elimination is priced up as follows
10/11 Misha (Boyles)
2/1 Amelia (Bwin)
10/1 Little Mix (Bwin)
14/1 Marcus (Bwin)
The 2/1 about Amelia feels like max bet stuff. Its long been touted on here that Amelias parachuting back into the contest makes her the one act the producers will not want to win. Booting her in the semi now feels like the right move.
Once again, it will be Misha defending in the bottom two, but everything looks geared up for an Amelia booting. Thoughts everyone?
Again it depends on a sing-off, my understanding is that they never did it with 4 acts left, could they make an exception again?
Janet took it like a man (unlike whiney CC). She was aware of everything and still kept smiling – probably she hopes to get a contract somewhere sometimes. I think everything started long time ago when I backed her to win just moments before she lost the lyrics for the first time. My outright betting generated 100% losses so I doomed her also. Second time I backed her few days ago to be a top girl at evens, a good bet was it right? No because she messed up the lyrics again, what are the odds that will happen 2 times after my actions! So, my only horse for the final is Marcus (luckily free bet there) but giving my outright record he will not be the winner.
Hi Daniel
Hi Andrew
Is anyone going to sink the good ship?
Simon please take me seriously, I will sink him with my bad luck for winner market. 🙂
See the thing I don’t understand about your comments is that why do you say it’s the producers that make her come across as boring, when all along it was Janet doing it herself. She picked most of her songs herself. It’s not their fault she isn’t very good. They might have given her early slots a lot but apart from that..?
If it turns out that Janet was leading the poll for weeks, we’ve probably seen the biggest hatchet job in the history of the show in their attempts to get her off the XF.
My own theory for why they turned against her is that she was very much her own woman and wasn’t prepared to play the role of an X Factor puppet. Apparently she was insisting on her own song choices and styling and wouldn’t budge. Perhaps Syco panicked and feared she would be too problematic to work with and quickly came around to the idea of jettisoning Janet and hyping the likes of Little Mix to the gills instead.
AND IS THERE STILL PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO DO NOT THINK THIS SHOW IS A TOTAL FIX-UP?
good luck guys on trying to pick your winners but unless you can nobble the shows producers yourselves then i can not see much hope for anyone to make anything from this year show.
im out i think from now on,gunna keep my money in my pocket and may be go out and buy JANETS first single when it comes out.
Just watching Janet on xtra factor I think she’s just as happy to leave as to have stayed given the pressures on her. She also repeated her claim of not being a stereo-typical XF contestent. She’s always said how XF meant so much to her but it was clearly to get exposure from the show and at this point in the competition I think that benefit was becoming marginal. Producers may have thought that early desperation may have been interpreted as malleability. So overall I think both Janet and XF have got what they wanted out of it. Plus I bet they have a shed load of Janet vote cost in the bank.
Do you think that Drew from across the pond may be to blame for the dropping and slaughtering of Janet Devlin as soon as the live shows kicked in? I don’t follow UsXF closely, usually just youtube the performances and see who gets the boot, but I feel their vocal style and the type of music syco would release with them is similar. and as I see she is doing quite well and being enormusly pushed by her mentor, Simon. She looks to me like a contender for the last stages of the show, which means very likely to be signed.
If Janet would have made it to the final, would Simon have really wanted to sign 2 similar sounding artist, even if they are from the two sides of the Atlantic, it’s unlikely. Janet was massively pimped in the beginning, and stopped as soon as the live shows began. The usxf is a few weeks behind, plus drew actually started to shine just before the live shows(judges houses). Compared with Janet she looks much more naive and easier to manage and be stirred in desired directions.
Yes,I know it’s a long shot, but do you think this too can have something to do with Janet loosing the love?
Drew might be a factor indeed. If so, I think a mistake has been made there. Drew is getting all the producer help in the world but is completely failing on US X Factor as far as I can see.
Hi, did anyone else get the impression that pimp slot / death slot works very differently in a week where they are singing two songs?
I think there was actually a benefit to Little Mix singing first this week due to them opening the phone lines after the first round of songs. Shortly after, Little Mix had finished both songs and the viewers could straight away start voting for them whilst they have yet to see what the others came up with for their 2nd song.
Presumably we’re likely to see a similar setup next week?
If you think in the weeks of this show Janet has had her grandad pass away (more difficult thing to deal with than any other contestant) and also had her birthday. All of this with just a passing hint in her VTs. In any contestant they see a winner the Grandad dying would be used for alot of the show for extra sympathy voted. I just don’t think Janet wanted to make a fuss of it and good of her. I’d say Amelia is next out, but I really don’t know what they have in store.
i wonder what will they do now to get Misha in to finals? How can she overcome Amelia?
You know what Andrew, I agree with you. After 7 series, we know what to expect from X Factor, and so should Janet. The reason I was angry is that I think Janet is a fantastic talent that could go to waste. However, the dignity with which she took it was fantastic. She deserves full credit, because she seems to have known what she was getting herself into and has taken it on. It felt like a nice exit for her on her own terms, even if I strongly feel that she had to be the winner this series.
Looking to the future now and I have to agree with you. The producers are going to look to cull Amelia off next week and then they’ve got Misha to the final. Amelia to go next week has to be the bet of the moment, and Little Mix to win surely has to be odds on now, with Marcus second.
Sing-off or not to sing-off, that is the question.
My view fwiw Boki is they won’t decide on sing-off until they see the voting figures on the Sunday. If Misha is bottom of the vote, again, there will be a sing-off, so they can save her again. But to prevent themselves looking even more ridiculous, saving her for a 4th time, they’d prefer to avoid such a scenario so expect Misha to get the full ramp, and Amelia the full de-ramp, to get Amelia bottom of the pv so Dermot can announce bottom of the vote will be eliminated.
Yes Rob that’s 100% logical. I just wonder what can they do this time with Misha, she’s just back to herself (inlcuding rap) and people don’t like that. So next week another softening lol.
It should be noted that Misha has still not been in the first half of the running order this series (I’m saying that the middle e.g. 3/5 is not the first half of the running order of course). Expect that to not change next week as I think she’ll have the pimp slot. Amelia meanwhile will open up the show. That’s my guess.
I think Janet certainly got stitched with running order and VTs but throughout the live shows I’ve been disappointed by her performances.
Marcus got stitched the first week with Moves Like Jagger (a particularly difficult song to sing I’d have thought – though I’ve no singing experience myself) but still did a good performance of it.
Janet gave poor performances week after week – with the exception of Kiss Me – but still stayed in the show.
Maybe with an even playing field, so no producer tricks and no regional vote, she’d have gone sooner! I couldn’t quite feel sorry for her getting the chop ahead of Misha when Misha’s outperformed her week after week.
When I heard her sing off song, Kiss Me and My Song from the auditions I wonder how she did so badly at all the other songs? Did she get them changed on her on a Thursday each week so have less time to prepare, or just not try hard enough as she didn’t get on with her team? Or get less support than the other girls? Or is she just extremely limited?
If she was so unmalleable for the producers I’m guessing she’d only sing songs she was happy with, so why such poor performances?
On her good songs, she was as good as anyone, just had too few of them.
Also bear in mind that when she first forgot her words was when they cut the middle 20 seconds out of her song 20 minutes before she was due to go on stage.
Given that she clearly cannot win, why does everyone beleive it is so important to have Misha finish 3rd rather than 4th ??
I hope you are right as I have her EW @20/1….
Nugget. A well worked out and carefully weighed ‘ballast’ perhaps to make sure 1st and 2nd are ensured for LITTLE MIX and MARCUS respectively ?
Plan your work and then work your plan.
i agree, plus X factor finalist sounds better than 4-5th place, also if Misha gets good duet for final she can place 2nd without a doubt…
For those that think that 15/8 Misha B to be top girl with Paddy Power must be tempting ??
Hi Nuggs matey peeps. Yeah feeling happy alright. I don’t have the ‘spare’ to be doing regular smaller week to week short odds bets but it does almost sound good that one if one has it to risk and blow.
My style is getting in very early at big odds with my twitching talent spotting nose and sweaty palms.
I’m well sorted if LM and MC come first 2 any way round, (but LM 1st is my best option with wins and f/c’s to the tune of £1.5k for a small potatoes outlay all at 66/1).
Even have a 28/1 f/c cover if AMELIA snook in 2nd to LM for a tenner (just in case). I’m not daft and this IS fickle XF after all, LOL
LM did great job regardless and STILL showed great versatility and wide appeal and are now trending BIG style across the board now.
It was all a good calculated move on XF’s part and it toughened them up more for the final hurdle (as it HAS been too smooth for them lately). Tough love so to speak.
It got the ‘sod you bullies’ bit out of the way and now its back to the serious biz of WINNING with some stotin’ stuff and Jesy’s Beatbox talents to show off yet.
All signs have been ‘pointing to Rome’ for long enough now and we are nearly there at last. Just need to kill the ‘wicked Karaoke Witch’ off now and get past the Wizard before we can click our Ruby Red Slippers together and think of home sweet home.
Taichou. What I mean is, if they can do another great hatchet job on the SCREAMING KARAOKE QUEEN AMELIA next week like they did this week on JANET it would leave JANET 3rd.
Both JD and (trending)AL were the biggest vote threats to LM and MC and they could effectively mess up their plans, so it would now mean massaging a ‘guaranteed’ and ‘bigger’ vote gap to those front 2 ‘XF desired’ runners to leave it clear for them if they get MISHA to 3rd.
They know the voting numbers after all.
No way will MISHA get to 1st or 2nd when LM and MC are so clean and green with no controversy attached and no closet skeletons. 3rd is a nice gift for her usefulness to see her on her way after controlling and then repairing her cred for her.
Remember what BORELOW said to her about ‘not thinking of the semi or the final, but to think ahead to 2012 and I will buy your CD’. In other words ‘forget it luv, you ain’t gonna win anything here but will have a career after this show regardless’.
So PeteD
Will you be lumping on Misha to be top girl at 15/8?
As I said earlier, my punting is now over this series, I sit on a lumpy lil mix top 3 bet, and an ante post EW Misha which I had almost given up on a few weeks back.
That 15/8 will not last judging by opinions aired on here so get it quick 🙂
Oh and you have got to be feeling happy about LM PeteD ?, to perform first, put what was in all honesty a below par performance, receive mixed comments and still not hit bottom 2 must be seen as a big positive to the strength of the following they now have.
agree Pete..
I’ve updated my vote prediction graph with this week’s findings at this page Happy to make a big deal of it this time as it got the bottom 2 spot on 🙂
Interestingly, if it’s right, then Little Mix topped the vote despite performing first. Simon le chat may not agree, but the girls should probably be favourites if this is on the right lines.
Very interesting again thank you. But I would also bare in mind that Little Mix havign the first slot may have been just as good (if not better) than having the pimp slot.
Their poor 1st performance was quickly forgotten, covered up by Strictly’s overlap and the other performances. However their 2nd song (which was much much better, and would appeal to a wider demographic) was performed just after phone lines had opened.
Hi Jake – thanks 🙂
I haven’t any hard evidence on whether it helps to be on first when the phone lines are open. Matt Cardle won the final last year from first with the phone lines open, but his lead was smaller than on previous weeks.
My guess is that it is still a hindrance, as voters waiting to hear all the performances before voting might have forgotten the first acts. But running order probably has less impact later on as the acts and their fans are well established.
X Factor all about trying to figure out who the producers want to win and who to leave each week. (Which eventually leads to being able to set it up for the winner)
I could not be any more convinced that they DO want Misha to be in the final. She is easily the most marketable and can make them the most money, why would they not want her to be successful and make the final much more £££ for them.
And they DO want Little Mix to win, no group has ever won X Factor and has never looked likely too. This is the best chance they will get. I mean lets be honest if a group NEVER wins xfactor it doesnt really do much good for the X Factor product, may aswell just say no groups can enter and run with it.
So how have they set it up so Misha stays in and Little Mix wins?
Simple and as easy as this, this week they set it up so Misha WOULD be in the bottom 2, so that she is very likely to have the “bounce” factor for next week and get extra votes and go straight to the final. How did they do this? Her main rival at the bottom of market is Amelia, so they gave her the PIMP Slot knowing that it would get her additional votes this week leaving the most likely outcome of forcing Misha into this weeks bottom 2.
Why not Amelia for the final?
Well lets not forget Amelia was voted back into the competition after skipping 5 weeks, when she voted out by her mentor. Now what does this say if she went on to win it. Its basically saying that next year, if someone is voted out early, it doesnt matter because they CAN be better than the winner, taking any credit away from future winners and the X Factor Brand.
Amelia being called the X Factor Winner is basically saying she is the Best and then this makes a total mockery of any act that was voted out because they too could be the best. Which damages future X Factor winners credability.
Why do little mix win?
A group have never won x factor in about 10 series, this is the closest they have possibly come to winning and I dont think they will ever get a better chance than this. So where does Amelia fit in? Well Amelia can appeal to the same young audiece that appeal to Little Mix, so they share the audience votes. Which is nothing but a big fat negative for Little Mix.
Little Mix were on FIRST this weekend and Amelia was last (pimp slot) its easy to see this could be switched next week and Little Mix go back into favouritism. And by giving Amelia the first slot, its much much easier for her to end up at the bottom of the votes and leave.
This would then give Little Mix extra votes and more chance of them winning.
The Bet
Amelia can be backed at 7-4 to go this week, in a week were only her or Misha can go, you would be better off backing Misha to be Top Girl at 15-8
If this weekend pans out how expected, Amelia will be trading at odds on, On Sunday Morning.
Just a few random thoughts from a first time poster who values this site:
1. Lots of comments on here and other forums stating as a fact that there was a large and loyal Irish vote for Janet. This was just lazy supposition with no foundation. All the empirical evidence suggested there was no such vote.
2. What Janet had I think was a very loyal and sizeable minority vote that like all marmite acts took her a long way but could never take her all the way. She was far too niche to get cross over appeal mass voting. She will get a contract and will do well in the Indie market. I thought she went out in style as well. Cardle take note as to how you can take part in XF and still retain your artistic integrity.
3. I think it is now established that when the phone lines open makes little if any difference to the actual outcome where 2 songs are sung. Counter intuitive I know. If Little Mix’s song order had been switched that would have been a worry but their killer one was the second one which everyone watched.
I agree with the consensus about why Janet was dropped – because she wasn’t what the XF producers thought they were getting.
Look back to Janet’s first audition. She comes across as this small, little, cute, Irish waif; certainly not someone who you’d imagine would be fiery or unhappy to co-operate. It seems that the producers thought they could control her easily. When it became apparent to the producers that she was more individualistic and wanted more of say, they decided to drop her.
Its taken them a long time to do it, but I think they’ve wanted to get rid of her for a while. She was given the pimp slot on Week 1, but just look at her draws ever since:
Week 2: 4/12
Week 3: 2/11
Week 4: 6/10
Week 5: 2/9
Week 6: 4/7
Week 7: 2/6
Week 8: 2/5
The only time she’s been on in the second half of a show was week 4. Was it Week 2 when she picked her own song? If so, maybe then producers realised just how difficult she was to work with.
The problem for them must have been her popularity. If you look at those draws, then the fact that she survived to this point without falling in the bottom two (and considering she had some awful performances – Every Breath You Take, I Want You Back etc.) is a massive achievement. In the end, it took the most ruthless of tactics to get rid of her and I bet she was 4th this week, as they would have taken it to deadlock to make it more “fair” if she was bottom.
So, now producers have axed one of Little Mix’s main challengers, they only really have one left – Marcus. And I have a feeling that it could go down to the wire…
Off subject. Just watching XF extra repeat (as recorder on blink) and have to say that JESSIE J’s song and vocals were just inspiring and absolutely jaw dropping and up there with BEYONCE’s. Anyone agree ?
Jessie who?
The blue rinse brigade out there have never heard of her.
I had no idea you were a member of the Blue Rinse Brigade Simon 🙂
Nugget. It’s infinitely preferable at least to ‘Pink’ (or Orange) rinse, ha ha. Good on yer Simon, whatever ‘rinse brigade’ you represent. If the ‘good ship’ makes it, you can then ‘get down and get with it’ and perhaps buy a Jessie J CD.
Had my 5 year old granddaughter on the phone ‘again’ yesterday all the more excited now about the LITTLE MIX ‘gathering snowball’ after Saturday and keeps on watching their vids over again (and again as kids do) and she knows all the words already.
She and her friends have been one of my best ‘measuring stick’ observations so far (regardless of all the XF politics and stats). “Out of the mouths of babes” so to speak. ‘Girl Power’ is back.
Misha again:
X Factor 2011 backstage staff ‘can’t wait’ for diva Misha B to leave!
http://xfactor.tellymix.co.uk/news/62063-x-factor-2011-backstage-staff-cant-wait-for-diva-misha-b-to-leave.html#ixzz1ezaCJobI
I again wonder if they can get her saved for the 4th time they decide for a sing-off and she’s bottom. I hope Daniel/Andrew will elaborate this in following articles.
I may be wrong saying this, but I read a rumour/fact that Syco had priority on the top 4 finalists on x factor (I assume this was a rule from the 4 person final last year, but it may not have been changed). Maybe Syco just wanted to get Misha to 4th place so that they would have priority on offering her a recording contract etc.
I still agree though that they will want Misha to be get to the finals over Amelia, but I reckon if Misha is bottom of the votes then she will be instantly eliminated. Saving her a fourth time would just damage her ‘brand’ and if Amelia is 2nd last (but the public arn’t shown this with a bottom 2, then she is more likely to come 3rd).
Axed X Factor hopeful Janet Devlin said this evening that should couldn’t wait to get away from the show, and seemed positively happy after she was kicked out by the judges after falling into the bottom two.
Read more: http://xfactor.tellymix.co.uk/news/62011-x-factor-uk-janet-devlin-glad-to-be-out-of-the-show.html#ixzz1f03OtqJi
It seems like Janet knew in the week she was on the way out and from her This Morning interview it appears she did choose most of her songs but they were not her first choice as she is not into “pop music”. She was “advised” by the producers to choose something else.
iv said before but ill say again ITS A FIX.
This show could not be anymore overious if it tried,ok i know some of you guys out there who have read some of my posts over the last few days may think im slightly bitter as i was a JD follower but im not,ive just seen the light,and now im fee… i just read this show for what it really is A SCAM .Cllrmick your right ive seen 2 interviews today from janet saying she knew she was leaving wednesday,but how did she know this if this show is not FIXED in some way ??????,its simple they wanted her out weeks ago but could not seen to do it,FOR WHAT EVER REASON I DONT KNOW but it could not of been that hard with all there powers, so they sent her to the gallows on saturday night to prove once and for all there the ones who control the strings on these pupits,but they proberly told her that they wanted her gone so she would not make a sceen on live tv like kitty did,,it gave her 3 days to get us to it,why else would they have let her go home to turn on some petty chrimbo lights and to prepare her frieds and family for her home comming and not make her practice for the show.
my advise to all who are backing your acts,watch out cus nowbody will be spared on this show,some how they will be sacrafised but proberly much more sutterly now janets gone.
next act for the slaughter house=4times bottom runner .. MISHA..even a fixed show cant push her in the final as cowell will be slated so much ofcom may investergate,and the GBP aint nieve either to believe its not a set up, after being down there so much she has squatters rights i think!
Final 3=the sugar plum fairy “AMILA” third place as any higher will scream the “F” word again.”see above” enough said.
2 place= Botoxboy MARCUS,great voice,i have to agree but not suitable for main stream people,all a abit dated to me but people lv him and thats enough for the show i guess,just not the winner they want which is drum roll please…..
1 place=the little-fixups,the girl group of choice for the show exec from week 3 onwards,makes the shows producers and show itself look “COOL AND DOWN WITH THE MAN,WORD UP TO YOU MOTHER”urbun styaly.not my taste but who cares im not backing them,but if you were to ask , we dont really need another girl group just yet,we got enough bads ones out there allready,let these ones fade away before you replace them with another.
Janet left because she wasn’t very good. Enough of the daft conspiracy theories. There are only so many weeks you can listen to essentially the same style of singing, with the viewer asked to buy into the forlorn hope that the cutesy, folksy Oirish styling will somehow compensate for yet another utterly lifeless performances. Saturday’s lacklustre performance of Mmmbop had me, once again, wondering who on earth takes responsibility for song choices.
The show is entering the same sort of death spiral experienced by Big Brother. This year has seen some truly bland and mediocre acts pumped up into something they clearly are not in much the same way as BB changed from social experiment to showcase for loudmouthed exhibitionists trying to forge a career as a Z-list celeb.
Its probably time for Simon to make a “dramatic appearance” to save the show. Sadly, that moment probably passed several seasons ago, and was buried completely the minute the utterly talentless Frankie was allowed to shamble around the stage pretending to be a rock star.
If anybody has seen (the quite brilliant) film, ‘Quiz Show’ starring Ralph Fiennes they will know that this sort of smoke and mirrors manipulation of a TV audience has been going on for years.
The tagline of the film is: “Fifty million people watched, but no one saw a thing.” Exactly.
Congratulations, Miss Devlin for not playing the game and sticking up to ‘The Man’, you can sleep on a night with peace of mind.
I’m so proud of you.
The song choices were never there choice, and most weeks you could tell the contestants knew the songs where wrong for them and knew when they were singing them they were going you could tell by there faces and more so on the sundays show, James then sami then sophie then criag and janet knew, you could tell the contestants knew they were going and then craig and janet both said it was our time we were ready to go.