This won’t have been a bottom two the show wanted, but they certainly made the most of a bad situation for them. Louis’s amusingly protracted dither and Gary storming off the stage made for controversy in spades, and controversy is this show’s oxygen.
It certainly wasn’t a bottom two we at Sofabet expected, either. Initially, contemplating the hand the public vote had dealt us, I saw no reason to doubt what I wrote on Saturday morning’s preview re Carolynne – “I think she has producer favour on her side and that should be enough – unless of course she was in the bottom two with Rylan”. Or, indeed, what we wrote on the Saturday show, re Carolynne that we thought “she’d be saved against most”, but that “Rylan would be saved against anyone”.
Then Rylan sang first in the singoff, contrary to the recent trend to save the second.
Sooner or later the show was always going to realise it would be a good idea to mix that pattern up. And it’s also the case that the singoff is usually in the order in which the acts sang on the Saturday, which could also have explained Rylan going first.
At any rate, as Louis milked the tension for all it was worth – a situation in which he is clearly in his element – I regained my confidence that we were indeed headed for the drama of deadlock and a Carolynne exit, and hoovered up as much as I could get on Betfair at odds of around 2.5. I’m now feeling mightily relieved and somewhat emotionally drained.
There’ll be much to analyse in the coming days. It’s the first time in X Factor history that an act singing either last or second last has ended up in the bottom two in the first live show – indeed, in the first three live shows. Is it possible, as Steven asks in the comments, that I may have been too dismissive of the idea that the phone lines being open from the start of the show would make a difference? There’s still no doubt in my mind that producers were out to get District 3 this week by sending them out first, so if this is the case, I expect it will have taken producers by surprise, too.
It’s early days to draw any conclusions, though, given the doubt that always existed over Carolynne’s ability to connect with the viewing public.
For now, let’s simply observe that this is nothing new for X Factor. Louis’s task in taking it to deadlock required a lot less gall from him than it took Simon Cowell to do the same thing with Jedward against Lucie Jones in 2009. What did you make of it all? Do keep the conversation going in the comments below.
Nerve wrecking tonight indeed, first time I witnessed a sing-off featuring both acts in producers love while they didn’t succeed to place D3 in bot2.
Few remarks from tonight I find important…
I thought we cleared up this ‘first in the sing-off eliminated’ last year. Acts will sing in the order dictated by the slot in the live show. Rylan had 9th and Carolynne penultimate slot so he sang 1st, simple as that. Most of the time the slot in the lives indicate a wish to keep someone so last year all of them from unfavored lousy slots were eliminated. This time it was not applicable since both acts were favored but one had to go. Sorry for the long explanation of the obvious but someone commented he was thinking Rylan is gone for this reason (and I typed it before your article anyway).
Market was again wrong about one act in the bottom 2, this really becomes the trend.
I had no idea Leona Lewis is so hot 🙂
I, personally, feel that producers were all set to axe Rylan and were instead trying to think up reasons to save him. Consider that he went first in the sing off and sang “One Night Only” (Carolynne’s “There You’ll Be” seemed much more appopriate) and the fact that there was the obvious moment of the producers telling Louis what to do during Carolynne’s performance. Or maybe, it was just some cunning ploy to trick those who thought it was incredibly easy to predict based upon patterns…
Methinks that Carolynne’s problem may have actually been the late running order slot. While acts like Jahmene and Ella could still pull in enough acts based upon fan base and those who hung around till the end of the show to vote, District3 going first meant that anyone who wasn’t sure whether to vote for them or not were instead able to vote straight after their performance, before they’d been all but forgotten. While I don’t think they’ll have been much off a bottom two place, I don’t think Carolynne’s second to last slot was going to do her any favours considering how unpopular she was.
I don’t think the phone lines made the difference, there was just no target voting group for Carolynne as I told you so before :).
Congrats for lumping on 2.5 , my only mistake tonight was being too quick to lump on 1.7 – 2, didn’t believe it would go so high.
I got the feeling that Rylan singing first tonight was designed to emphasise the shock of Carolynne being eliminated. I don’t think it’s ever been explained on the show but the above reason does make perfect sense.
That is, the reason explained above by Daniel and Boki. Just for the record, I got on at 2.4 during the sing off 😀
Looking forward, I’m most interested in seeing how they’ll try to get Rylan’s vote up.
I mean, Week 1 and they already used the death threats VT. Where can you go from there?
The sympathy bounce from bottom two may well be bigger than the sympathy bounce from a VT like that, but after that…
The anti-XF vote clearly hasn’t coalesced around him yet. Will Gary’s very visible if rather staged irritation help push it there? If not, how far will they go in saving him?
I mean, Week 1 and they already used the death threats VT. Where can you go from there?
He’ll have the pimp slot next week with backing dancers, glitter, fireworks, the lot.
An alternative analysis of last night’s show some sofabet readers may have missed, & which explains why Carolynne was far from safe & looked a prime bottom 2 candidate despite her seemingly favourable draw of 12: http://wp.me/pERoX-wC
I think song choice was a huge, huge factor in Carolynne’s polling, the secondary factor being that she was the quorn in an Ella/Jahmene sandwich (a deliberate tactic?). If it was a nobble, which I fairly strongly suspect, this is how it was done. Seriously, a country and western version of Starships by Nicki Minaj? A song that Carolynne’s older voting demographic would be unfamiliar with and that lyrically and musically would be completely alienating to them, and which would definitely put younger voters off her too. I love her, but it looked and sounded completely stupid with her sauntering round singing about her “hoopty hoopty hoop” and “twinkle twinkle little star” (I feel I’ve lowered myself just by typing that…). If they’d sent her out on a plinth doing Faith Hill, Shania Twain or LeAnn Rimes she’d have been safe. (Dolphins and Hera Björk for added safety ;).) For me it goes down in the nobble handbook as a case study worth remembering: insanely bad song choice and arrangement + sandwich between the two favourites = Carolynne wasn’t meant to fly.
A few thoughts for your browsing pleasure:
1) posters claiming that the world is coming to an end because of the FIX FACTOR OMG!!!!! should reflect for a moment. We voted. The act who came last went out. But more than that; the producers had a heavy defeat tonight. As usual some acts were favoured and others kneecapped. But the voters didn’t listen; they voted for the acts they preferred. Both acts in the bottom 2 were pushed and favoured, but the producer influence wasn’t enough. Power to the people….
2) Louis might do what is required, but not very well. He seemed to be struggling to know what to do amidst all the noise, and we’ve seen the picture of the word in his ear. Why don’t they give the judges pagers to get info across quickly and subtly – MPs are mostly briefed this way.
3) we need a new alpha over. Our hosts had already speculated that carolynne would need replacing in this role, but their hands are forced wk1, with only a single phone vote. Kye is obvious choice, but I can see them pushing the Liverpool vote with Christopher the people’s champion.
4) Time for Rethink on the groups? District3 have survived an assassination attempt – will they be allowed to breathe? I’ve already posted that I see serious issues with UnionJ which can’t easily be fixed. Will the producers turn again? And I was mighty relieved to hear MK1 called out 🙂
I honestly don’t think that was the intention tonight. District 3 were clearly thrown under the bus. I also expected Rylan to be binned off based on the first position in the singoff. Fans of last year’s Betsfactor blog will have also noticed he got red-and-blacked.
However, what we MUST remember is the cornerstone of the X Factor’s never-changing formula is two things:
1. There’s always a “twat act”. In 2005, it was Chico. 2009, Jedward. 2010, Wagner. 2011, Johnny Robinson.
2. There’s always an act the public clearly reject who the judges will keep in at all costs. Katie Waissel in 2010, and then Misha B in 2011. Both cats with 9 lives.
Rylan has combined both the roles of “twat act” and “public rejecting act” this year. He’ll be around until, I’d say, mid-November. He’ll be thrown under the bus when the contest starts to get serious. At which point a lifetime contract at G.A.Y., next year’s Eurovision entry and a cameo in TOWIE will all await him.
I disagree with the Sofabet consensus that District 3 were thrown under the bus, and as Boki outlined, Rylan sang first because he was first in the lineup. (His vocal was atrocious, wasn’t it?)
I can’t see him bouncing. His slot this week was a kitchen-sink job and still he was bottom 2 in a crowded field. He doesn’t have the vocal prowess to pull off an emotional performance nor the charisma to pull off an entertaining one (as we saw last night), so at this point I expect to see him in the bottom 2 again next week. When he’s saved again then ends up in the bottom 2 for the third week running, that’s when I’ll start dragging out my corny “Rylan likes it in the bottom” jokes.
Last thought: what would they have done if Rylan had been bottom? Accept total defeat, or engineer a majority vote for Rylan?
Surely in that instance, Tulisa and Louis would have voted Rylan and sent Carolynne home 3-1?
Rad, that’s exactly what would have happened. Tulisa knows what side her bread is buttered on after all. The judges can always come up with a reason to save an act and Tulisa could recycle her comment on Saturday to Rylan, “The show wouldn’t be the same without you”
I Would not be surprised if there is a twist. Vote voided and carolynne brought back
Ofcom could bugger them for that, as happened in Big Brother in – I think – 2006. The only reason they did a similar thing to replace Frankie Cokeupthenozza last year is because the artists up for voting weren’t binned off by the public. Incidentally, Frankie’s been less than kind on Twitter tonight.
For those people who’ve complained to Ofcom tonight about the incident, the odd thing with television is that Ofcom don’t investigate until they’ve recieved loads of complaints. However, with radio, all it takes is for some knobhead on DigitalSpy to kick off and it’s immediately investigated. Very inconsistent.
Sounds like you speak from experience, James. “some knobhead on DigitalSpy” – are you actually James Arthur? 😉 Hehe
Carolynne is actually the first ever contestant from the Overs category to be eliminated in the first week of public voting in the history of the show, and the first from this category since 2006 to wind up in the bottom two on the first week. I would never have imagined her being eliminated this early, since I thought the Overs looked like by far the strongest category this year, and since she got very favourable treatment in the build up shows, only to get de-ramped, similar to Nu Vibe last year. I wonder what changed behind the scenes.
Now that District 3 have survived the public vote despite being on first in week 1 (only the second act ever to do this), and after Union J’s horrible performance, I’m kind of wondering, much like Nu Vibe and The Risk last year, will the producers switch their alliegances towards them and put Union J on the chopping block. Either way, I wouldn’t be surprised if a group left next week, or better still, if the next singoff in Group VS Group.
It’s early days yet, but my main prediction is that the Bottom Two next week will be either District 3 or Union J, depending on which one gets de-ramped VS either MK1 or Rylan ( I would imagine that because of this incident, and the fact that despte being the “joke act”, the public are not warming to him at all, and this might prevent the sympathy bounce, even if he is given the pimp slot)
In the long run, I expect Lucy to be de-ramped about halfway through the series, and while I think the producers may try to nobble Shakey Maloney, it will be very difficult to get rid of him since he is the only Scouser in the competition, and the regional vote might just keep him in for a while yet.
One last thing is that I’m surprised the producers are pushing Union J at the minute, since from what I recall off the top of my head, they were the only act out of the final 13 whose audition was montaged (which is odd, you usually get at least 3 per year who get montaged at auditions yet make the live shows)
Re: Union J vs District 3. Looking at twitter and tumblr Union J are way more visible than District 3 among the teenagers. If you look in the X-Factor tag pretty much all you see are posts about how much they love Union J and specifically George.
Now of course the producers could decide differently but Union J definitely seem to have the crazy young girl fan base this series.
Dis you hear Louis. First comments were “I want to keep Carolyn, I’m saving Carolyn. Then when questioned by Dermot “I’m sending Rylan home”. Then with pressure from Tulisa and Dermot he decides on dead lock. I wish we could find out what that tech guy said to him. BTW I had money on Rylan going out at 12/1 !
Either Louis is a great actor or he was really confused who to save since both acts were in favor. What are the views on that?
Hey Boki, Louis may have been really confused (if so, not his fault – as tpfkar said, why no discreet and failsafe means of communication in this situation?), but I would bet he’s also a great actor. I don’t think he’d have survived for nine series if he wasn’t – it’s a vital skill for the job. Cowell is peerlessly good at it. Gary isn’t, which is why I don’t think he’s really worked.
Watched it couple of times this morning and got impression he acted until the last moment when he said to keep Carollyn instead of send Carollyn and Dermot insisted to put him on the right track.
Completely off-topic: why I don’t have the spelling checker in the comment window anymore, I had it before and it vanished?
Looks like it vanished with the upgrade to the new WordPress comments module, but may reappear
http://jetpack.me/2012/06/14/jetpack-comments-now-available/#comment-4347
While we’re on technical issues, I’m experiencing one as of last night – some of my comments don’t appear when I post them, but if I submit them again I get a “duplicate comment” message (though the original comment still isn’t visible). Is this a glitch or am I being censored/vetted by The Man? 😉
We haven’t censored you ev….yet 😉
Seriously though, there are some technical issues we apologise for. We understand it’s frustrating, and we experience it ourselves. For example, there was no reply option to your post so I have hit the reply button on Boki’s message and hope this appears underneath your post as intended.
No worries. Thanks!
District 3 – I think maybe it was a case of TPTB thinking ‘a group will very probably be b2 in week 1, so we might as well push a bit for the one we want to be b2’ rather than ‘omg we must get rid of District 3 at any cost even if it’s the last thing we do’. Like Little Mix showed last year, there’s always the first time, so no group in the b2 on week 1 this year, during which % difference in votes is very tight as Daniel says.
Carolynne – I guess we will always wonder whether the unconventional choice of song and the #12 ella-jahmene sandwich slot was a naïve attempt by TPTB to pimp her. ‘Are meant to fly’ as Gary commented to Tulisa about ‘Starships’. Was Carolynne meant to fly? Sofabet fully on the right track about the producers/public disconnect re her appeal. B2 and eliminated on week 1 from slot #12. As I said above, there is always the first time! Time will tell if the change in the voting window has made a difference.
Rylan – I saw this in some sofabet comments and I agree: all of Jedward, Wagner, Waissel and Kitty had at least one trait which gave a reason to at least one group of tv viewers to vote for them. Rylan maybe doesn’t. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him back in the b2. Even Frankie flirted with the b2 in the couple of weeks after his sing-off and before his ejection.
Surely at least one group in the b2 next week…right????
Hi guys! long time reader and i thought i’d comment for the first time to over my view.
I regret not posting last year because when you were debating who would be the top scouser between marcus/craig, i could tell from early on that it would be marcus who would be favoured as he comes from my area (crosby) which is in liverpool and was gaining massive support, while craig comes from Kirby which well as everyone now knows isnt in liverpool and subsequently meant people would back marcus more as he was “a proper scouser”.
I thought id share my opinion on the scouse vote this year since i regretted not doing it last year in case i was wrong. If i turn out to be wrong then oh well fair enough.
While the scouse vote is usually one of the strongest if not the strongest regional vote. Chris Maloney is NOT connecting with the Liverpool public! While the past few times high profile scousers have been on the show (Rebecca, Marcus even ray quinn) there has been massive support for them even from judges houses onwards, shaky has NOT had that support! I know literally of noone who supports him. By all means back shaky if you think his voice can stand up to the best in the competition, but please dont take the regional vote as a reason to back him to do really well. He just hasnt got the same connection with liverpool as marcus and rebecca had, on twitter a satirical scouse page (followed and occasionally tweeted by marcus collins who the page loves) has been ripping into shaky since judges houses, and you can read tweets from scousers saying how he isnt a proper scouser and he’s embarrassing himself. (@ScouseBirdProbs if your interested)
i prepare to be stood corrected but i do believe he’s gonna be the first(?) scouser to fall well before the final.
That’s really interesting Mike, thanks for sharing. Why do you think this is?
Maybe it’s just me, but Carolynne’s VT package was not favourable at all. It showed her “resisting” some of the mentoring/guidance, it showed confusion and when she stated “I am 32, not 16” and some babble about how she knows better because of that it could be perceived as a dig at favourite Ella.
It might not have been intentional or maybe the producers just changed their minds about her.
Hi Lia, you make some good points here. My take on the rather ambiguous vt was that they were giving Carolynne a ‘diva’ persona. This isn’t a positive persona it’s true, but it was something for viewers to latch on to. As the quote in our post-Saturday article of Stu Heritage’s Guardian blog indicated, a problem for Carolynne was eliciting any kind of reaction at all.
Her first audition VT was also confusing and didn’t quite work the way producers intended. She seemed to rush through different sob stories with each sentence, so that we couldn’t really fix on one. Last year’s failure, IVF failure, marriage failure all passed by in a blur. As a result, I don’t think viewers cared at all right from the start.
Though they kept Rylan for publicity etc. al this week. I’m not sure next week or even in week 3 they could do the same again. What happens if say next week Rylan gets Jade and is bottom of public vote? Gary would have no choice but to send Rylsn anyway and it be 2-2 at best with Rylan going.
Only other angle I could see Rylsn saved if its v a group, and Gary and Tulisa save Rylan with Gary saying some crap like ‘I’m getting payback against Louis and keeping Rylan against his act’ but a man who holds himself in such musical esteem surely couldn’t say that. When it comes to XF though nothing would surprise.
Seriously can’t see Rylan getting much sympathy vote. He’s not the typical anti XF bandwagon act as he’s not funny enough, at the sane time not a good singer and its hard to justify reasons to keep him. Remember Johnny last year was awesome at comeback remarks to Gary. Rylan doesn’t have it in his locker. I can see him in B2 next week and probably have to give him the chop.
I agree. Rylan doesn’t have the likeability or legs of any previous “joke” act – he’s less likeable than Waissel and a worse vocalist. Unlike Wagner or Jedward, he’s no fun – his performance on Saturday, which should have been tremendous fun given everything they threw at him, was delivered joylessly. In short, he’s miscast as the joke act. It’s only Week 1(!) and we’ve already had a Jedward/Lucie situation with accompanying public hysteria: the words “Fix Factor” are on everyone’s lips and a pic of a producer whispering in Louis’s shell-like is doing the rounds on social media, not to mention crude photoshopped images of Louis and Rylan shagging. People saying Louis should be sacked. The show may not want to repeat this week in week out – or maybe that’s exactly what they want. I didn’t watch in 2010 but it appears Waissel was saved 4 times(!) against presumably stronger contestants – is that what we’re looking at this year? Or will they ditch Rylan sooner? As he doesn’t even have the basic vocal competence Katie had, I doubt the show will be able to pull off a “Help” moment or even a fun performance like Katie’s Jungle Book one to keep him out of the bottom 2. Are they thus likely to increasingly nobble others to keep him afloat?
Rylan less likable than Kooky Monster??? Really??? He’s got to be really depressed after that one… LOL
Absolutely agree on song choice. Maybe TPTB were testing whether she had a core voting base by giving her such an alienating song choice. If she’s sung Need You Now by Lady Antebellum she would have been as safe as houses.
The problem with Rylan is that Lucy is there to mop up the Anti- Xfactor vote- and as ar as I’m concerned she’s more of a joke contestant than him anyway- a one woman Artic Monkey.
My friend Tom, who’s not a punter but is a long-time critical watcher, writes “Rylan is fun. But he’s a ringer/plant and this is going to happen EVERY SINGLE WEEK until he comes up against Ella or Jahmene”.
Well Katie got saved against 2 of Simons groups and I think it wasn’t so controversial as FYD and Belle Amie were poor anyway. I think it go controversial against TreyC and then especially against Aiden. However I still think Katie was a decent singer and she eventually got slight support from the public but still there were big controversial decisions. Simon could pull it off though and even if make it controversial, made sure the public think it was his decision. Louis yesterday showed how poor he is at the job and everyone knows it was producer influence even those that don’t speculate as we do on here about producer influence etc.
This. Exactly.
Plus if Borelow is even meaner to him than this week it might get the grannies out in force.
Just shows, no matter how much you read into it, and how insightful an understanding you think you have of the show’s format / manipulation tactics (my wife thinks I’m tapped in the head when I point out “black and red” or staged judges arguments) – the majority of us still didn’t expect that bottom 2.
Anyhoo – my bankroll is even thanks to catching GMD3 early at 11/2 for bottom 2 and laying off.
An early thought on next week – Maloney has served his purpose with the wildcard role, was clearly only favoured for his pre-lives appeal, has limited ability, not-so-passionate regional backing and although it would be slightly unfair for Barlow to lose a second over in as many weeks – I can see shaky sent out early with mixed judges reactions over vocals and versatility.
9/1 this morning, already shortened to 8/1 – I think that will look like real value come next Saturday.
10/1 Shakey with Coral now, Heisenberg.
Tend to agree on your early thought, although I would add any over to the equation.
They will probably pimp Rylan but there is a big risk he gets into bottom two again, even bottom vote. If they continue trying to get rid of a group (D3 of any other) there will be a problem because I don’t see Gary voting for Rylan after everything. So the only option they have is to continue the controversy and ‘piss Gary further’ by eliminating another over. That would mean a serious de-ramp of any over and Chris is indeed the best candidate but if he polled more votes than Melanie they can send her for the chop (people buying it is another story).
I am not talking from my pocket as I had no money involved in last nights elimination, but last night was a farse.
Rylan differs from most of the XF joke contestants in that he has not captured the publics imagination in the same way that Johnny, Jedward, Wagner or Chico did.
Never before has it been so clear to the general viewer (not just those who study the show) that the whole thing is staged and the decisions are taken by the production team in their own perceieved idea of what is best for the show. The phone vote is genuine, but I have no doubt that last nights bottom 2 created a problem for the producers. There is no way a bottom 2 finish was planned for Rylan, they gave him a great slot, decent comments a “death threat VT” and the biggest production of the night and yet still he could not avoid the bottom 2. The plan had always been to put him through to the lives and keep him there for 4 or 5 weeks, but where can they go with this now ?
Will Rylan be given another big production next week and the last slot to try and get him out of bottom 2 or will the producers accept that thier “joke” act has not worked out this year and change plans?
Louis made a mess of the job he was supposed to do, which was clearly (as everyone here knew) to take it to deadlock. As a result everyone has now seen through the whole pantomime and even the casual viewer is cynical about the show and its motives.
Aside from this the lack of any outstanding talent in Saturdays show was very clear, the accoustics and sound was appalling, the staging dull and some of the judges (ie Tulissa) looked like they just did not want to be there.
The Saturday show was the worst opening show they have ever deliverd. It was dark, dreary and lacked any fun.
I am a massive Xfactor fan and like a punt on it , I goto as many of the shows as I can, but for me this is the end of XFactor, it has ran its course now and the whole thing looks so contrived and fake now. I honestly beleive they should run this series and then put the show to rest. The talent they are picking up just isn’t the same level as previous series and most of the finalists this year would not even have got past bootcamp most other years.
Agree with everything you say about the Rylan situation, couldn’t have put it better. This is the question now. Will they cling on to him Waissel-style or realise he’s miscast?
He would no longer be a joke act but more a villain act which is a miscast for sure. However where Katie still had decent vocals and the first controversial save didn’t happen until week 4 v TreyC. Rylan has already had a controversy and I don’t see him as a joke or a villain.
Inclined to agree. It’s very early for this to have happened.
I think Ella is an exception. A clear front runner and looks difficult to do the Janet hatchet job on her as she is clearly the best there.
i beg to differ, jahmenes voice is technically superior to ellas, plus he has the joe mcceldrey factor to him
It is but he has far less control and oversings dreadfully as if his nuts were in a vice. He’s hardly a teen heartthrob either like Joe.
There is talk on some forums of bookies offering odds on a Carolyn return next week? Perhaps with a double elimination? Personally I’d like to see Dermot count a judge out if he/she can’t make up their mind. 5 4 3 2 1..no vote.
If that happens I’ll nosh off Louis Walsh. She was bottom of the vote. People are kidding themselves.
Heisenberg, I agree. They were already giving him a “diva” tag in xtra factor, Louis said this then backed up by Tulisa.
What do you all think about the running order next week? If the “open vote lines early” has made a difference to votes of the later ones, will TPTB move the favorites back to earlier in the show? I would think middle order would be good, would they then dump all the duff acts at the end so people can switch off at the last ad break?
That is not an option. A marquee act will always go last for ratings.
Just to clarify the point about the sing-off order once and for all. Since it’s introduction at the start of Series 5, there have been 31 sing-off’s (including Rylan v Carolynne) with the act singing first in the sing-off being the first of the two acts to perform in the original running order.
The two occasions when this was not the case, were:
Series 7 – Paije (6th) sang first against Cher (2nd)
Series 6 – Rachel (7th) sang first against Lloyd (4th)
In both cases the act singing first was sent home by the judges.
Hope that helps to clarify things.
Thanks Chatterbox, interesting and dangerous exceptions indeed, do you have any other explanation about this?
Hi Boki and Chatterbox, I seem to recall it being put out there that Cher was ‘not ready’ to sing first in the sing-off following the shock of being in the bottom two. Something like that anyway. Anyone else remember?
That last post was intended to be a reply to Boki’s initial post at the very top. Not sure why it’s dropped to the foot of this thread.
What annoys me is when I readt posts or artciles stating that it went to the public vote anyway so the right decision is made. Well why have a sing off then? The whole point of the sing off is for judges to choose who should stay based on this. Of course we all know that this is not really the truth and producers have already decided who they want to stay way before the sing-off, but it just annoys me when in articles they say its not a big deal because the public vote decided it anyway.
However from a betting perspective its great we can predict this so easily. I did not bet on the sing-off because its difficult on Live show 1 but the moment Louis dithered I knew he was going to save Rylan’s privates.
That’s a fair point (and love the pun)…