Given there’s only four arena audition shows, I was hoping to see more this weekend of the 24 apparently going to judges’ houses. On Saturday, we got Paul Akister, Lauren Platt and Jake Graham – one-eighth of the rumoured boyband put together at bootcamp. Sunday gave us Andrea Faustini, Stevi Ritchie and Jay James.
The game of hide-and-seek with some of the rumoured final 24 thus continues, including Steph Nala, formerly of Britain’s Got Talent semi-final winners The Luminites. It’s going to be hard to provide anything approaching a level playing field for many of these acts by the end of next weekend.
Saturday’s star turn was Paul Akister, who appeared to cement his probable alpha boy status with an eventful edit. His proud mum and dad were present, the song choice was ‘Let’s Get It On’ which propelled James Arthur from bottom two survivor to likely winner in 2012, whilst Cheryl and Mel’s lapdance for Simon ensured the Youtube clip will be even more popular.
He got a four-judge standing ovation for another soulful performance. Just to spell it out, Louis even said: “He’s the best solo boy we have.” Should he be in the live shows, Paul’s rise like a phoenix from last year’s rejection, and Middle England appeal make him the likely frontrunner at least in the initial phone votes. It’ll be hard to stop him Cardle-ing his way to the final, even if producers should wish to do so.
Lauren Platt had impressed in her short room edit, and continued on an upward curve with a slowed-down arrangement of ‘How Will I Know’. There’s continuity in her styling, which is always a good sign. The show was also doing its bit for healing broken marriages in reuniting her estranged parents.
Simon commented: “We’ve only scratched the surface with you, you’re going to get better and better, great audition.” But up against Lola and Chloe-Jasmine in her category, both of whom got a longer edit for the room auditions, the suspicion remains that even if she gets through to the lives, she’ll be the gamma girl. In that case, she can call Jade Ellis and Sophie Habibis for the lowdown on her likely treatment.
In the first lengthy slot of Saturday’s show, James Graham wowed judges with ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’. Part of the supposed boyband eightpiece, James had a supportive mum, got audience cutaway shots of melting teenage girls, and a standing ovation. Can the producers make it any more obvious that they’re taking this eightsome seriously?
We’re looking forward to seeing what they do to manage this at bootcamp. How many times will we watch Mel B pretending to agonise over rejecting these teens, only for Louis to bring them all together as a supposed afterthought? She’s going to need Oscar-winning acting skills not to appear ridiculous.
On Sunday, Andrea Faustini opened the show. He has a supportive mum and dad, he still loves pugs, and the styling is once again consistent. His soulful singing got a big reaction with the audience – one of the biggest ever, according to Simon. There was nothing here to make me change my mind that Andrea will be useful in the lives as a novelty act who can sing, in a category where they’re not often found.
Stevi Ritchie is a novelty act who can’t sing, and on the surface it would appear silly for Simon to take him to the lives in his overs category, even though this is where they are usually found. But it’s worth bearing in mind that in 2010, when Simon was last present, we had five novelty/villains: Katie, Wagner, Diva Fever, Storm Lee and Nicolo.
It actually makes lots of sense to have multiple novelties early doors, and let them engage in a Darwinian selection, of which Katie and Wagner emerged in that year. After all, why bother having a gamma over such as Lorna Simpson, to exit early to no one’s surprise, when you can have Stevi Ritchie causing a stir instead as a ridiculous gamma over, before his probable early exit? Much more fun all round.
Sunday’s show was all about Jay James, who was in the pimp slot for the second time during the audition process. The backstory was largely a reminder of what we learnt last time: pretty wife, cute child, ex-navy, humble looker who’s never quite had the break and views this as his last chance. His performance was an improvement on the room audition, got a huge reaction in the hall, a four-judge standing ovation and Simon laying claim to the overs category as a result.
Paul is currently edging Jay at the head of the win market, which reflects the fact that he feels much more like a ‘People’s Champion’ at this stage. If this were a high school movie, Paul would be the talented, shy, chubby kid who’s been spurned in love, JJ the jock with the prom queen girlfriend. But it does feel like Cowell’s script is attempting to favour JJ most of all.
Do give us your comments on the weekend’s shows below, and keep us posted of any further thoughts.
I still think the only reason they’ve held back the likes of Steph is so they haven’t revealed everyone too early on in the series. They can still go big on her if they want to next week. In previous years it’s been quite normal to only reveal a few of the big contenders in the very last audition show.
It’s a bit of a risky thing showing so few of them this weekend though. It makes it look like they are struggling to find anyone decent this year. I zapped through most of the shows bored out of my brain.
Still wondering about the rumour that Lola has been knocked out. It’s either got to be a mistake or part of a masterplan hasn’t it? Unless they’re running with Lauren over Lola?
The earlier a contestant makes an impact the more time they have to build a fan-base. This is why the likes of Ella & Sam B were given the first week pimp slot.
Steph has the advantage of having been on BGT, but if TPTB really wanted her to win they would have been pushing her much earlier.
They are either trying to subdue her vote for the lives or are going to show so little of her that most viewers won’t even question a decision to drop her at judges houses.
The only alternative is that they start talking about a lack of talent in the show as a build up to her giving a world beating performance that goes viral Subo style, but I don’t see this happening.
Just checked twitter followers and Steph has around 8.5k while Paul Akister has 26.5k, which shows the impact of being introduced to the public earlier in the show.
Paul has also been doing lots of promotional tv work since his first audition.
I see your point, but they’ve also left some of the big contenders until the very last auditions show too, so I don’t think they necessarily do it deliberately. I bet they haven’t always put their plan A in first week.
Does the gap between the room and the arena matter? Paul Akister’s room was aired Week 2 Sunday while his arena was aired Week 3 Saturday; compared to others whose room audition aired earlier but will have their arena audition air later.
I’m still struggling to see a clear winner out of this lot. Perhaps before making my last post regarding Paul I should have read the comments on DS suggesting that both Paul and Jake look likely to make the live shows. To me this looks a bit odd – as this potentially leaves Paul, Jake, Jay and Ben all fishing in the same pool of votes – albeit probably the biggest pool of votes. Is this the intention to split the vote to allow through a group or perhaps one of the girls who traditionally seem struggle for support?
Paul’s vocals were good this week, and he clearly has audience support, so yes a possible winner. But what was that with the judges side show? Was it a deliberate attempt to distract from Paul’s (non) performance – there still seems a lack of connection with the audience when he performs. He seems to be an awkward performer. Do they think this is something they can address by the live shows? Are they really going to push him?
Again I thought Jay was better this week than in the room audition, and yes again he may well be a contender – probably top ‘over’, but from what we’ve seen so far (including Youtube clips), I would be concerned that his range looks a bit narrow to really maintain strong support for 10 weeks of live shows. There’s only so much an audience can stand of angst ridden inward looking performances.
To me Both Paul and Jay look similar to previous winners who have come and then quickly faded because they lack any real individuality or substance. So why push these when they must know the likely outcome.
So at the moment I’m looking to see what the groups and the girls can produce. So far we don’t really know how either of those categories are going to shape up with a couple of the leading contenders not shown at all yet, which makes it a bit tricky to assess. Roll on next week.
I don’t believe for one moment the producers would want Paul to actually win. He won’t sell records.
I noticed that the boy band was being set up as Simon was shown wanting to pee during their time, goving the idea that they are not worth the time.
Or was it a sneaky way to allow each of the members of the group to introduce themselves – name, age and where they are from – allowing the audience to start to connect with them?
If I remember correctly, although other bands have introduced themselves by name, the only other group that has also been given this opportunity to provide age and location so far, has been Only The Young.
Doubt it since they get chopped at boot camp
stoney. I wish I’d known this before I put an e/way bet on Overload straight after their great performance. Oh bugger bugger BUGGER. That’s £20 which could have got me a rather nice bottle of red. lol
Ouch same thing happened to me in the Gamu year. I’ve never backed anyone again until I’m certain they are in the lives. Surprised Simon doesn’t see these boys as a potential moneymaker
Still rumours of a twist / wildcards so don’t rule anything out just yet.
The rumour of a fifth mentor with their own wildcard acts is one of the great unknowns at the moment. On the one hand would any mentor, such as Mary J Blige, really be interested in coming in to work with what might be seen as the cast offs from the other mentors. On the other hand as they seem hell bent on pushing a number of novelty acts into the live shows it’s quite clear that some decent acts aren’t going to make it without a wildcard category. For example it seems clear that to make space for Chloe-Jasmine one of Steph Nala or Lola Saunders probably can’t make it through. In the groups if they put through the manufactured boy band and (god forbid) Electric Blonde that’s going to squeeze out some otherwise decent looking groups. If the winner comes from the wild card group that’s going to be a bit embarrassing that they weren’t kept in the first place, but again why would any mentor come in if they had no chance of winning. The mechanics of selecting the wild card acts requires some thought too – surely not one act from each category as that would leave the mentor with 4 acts instead of 3, so would it just be an open selection of any 3 acts from the discarded 12. I think I’ll believe it when I see it.
stoney. Cheers, that’s what I’m now hoping for really that Overload still might get through somehow. “It’s not over until the fat lady sings”, so they say. These lads ticked all the right boxes (even in Simon’s money hungry eyes $ $ judging by his reaction) and they are ready to be groomed for chart success. Prices have still moved in to as low as 12/1 during the week since I placed my 33/1 e/way straight after the show.
When did we find out about the location and ages of Only The Young? Their youtube audition video cuts out the introduction bit
.
Only The Young had a VT introduction before their room audition, where they introduced themselves individually by name, and explained that they all lived together. Then to the judges they again introduced themselves by name and age, and re-confirmed that they lived together.
Here’s the clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrvVkIfuStI
Looks like Steph is through to the lives?
http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showpost.php?p=74807406&postcount=64
If Steph got the pimp slot next week, I don’t think it would be too late. In 2014, pop music more than ever seems to be about generating hype all at once rather than building up to it. And scanning some forums I don’t see signs that a ton of people are strongly attached to any act we’ve seen yet. Also, speculation, but skipping to a killer arena performance for at least one of their major acts would allow them to downplay how many retreads are in this year’s field.
No pimp slot for Steph and they seemed to downplay her performance when compared to other acts.
There was a sly stabbing of another well known singing contest during the judges’ comments after James Graham – I think Simon said “that’s the best version I’ve heard of that song”………’I Can’t Make You Love Me’ was Jamie Johnston’s signature song on the last series of ‘The Voice’.
I think you’re reading too much into that. It’s been done countless times on various shows.
I’ve finally caught up with the series so far. The most hyped contestants (I think) are Paul Akister and Jay James; Lauren Platt, James Graham, Ben Haynow and Jack Walton are some of the best.
I would perhaps disagree with Lauren as gamma girl. I’ve not looked closely at the spoilers on Digital Spy just yet – so I could be wrong – but based on her edits, I could see Kayleigh Manners playing that role. Lauren, I think, is being primed for beta or even alpha status… Perhaps at the expense of Lola.
Jay James continues to interest me. His second performance was slightly better than his first, true, but his first was rank bad. He continues to substitute power for control, and the producers continue to attempt to present his chronic discomfort on stage (all those vocal and facial contortions) as ‘passion’. In his favour, he does have a nice smile (and uber-cute baby) – says the right things – and even to me seems ‘likeable’. However, he’ll never be a singer, whether he’s signed or not; and the reason he’s so uncomfortable on stage is because (to his credit) I suspect he knows this.
Having said that, I’m actually warming to him… And if I had to pick a winner at this early stage I would go either for him… or Faustini.
Stevi Richie… In the right hands, the novelty can be a dangerous loose cannon. But the show has had its fingers burned too many times by such contestants (Wagner, Maloney) and now prefers a novelty who knows his/her place (Rylan). I sense Richie is a novelty who will do exactly what he’s told, knows exactly what’s expected, and is happy to play along. For some reason, I still can’t see it ending happily for the lad; but those who ride with dragons must expect sometimes to get burned.
Raign (‘the hustler’) would have made a better novelty, but looks to me like someone apt to go rogue at any moment.
Last week, Steph Nala tweeted that she will soon have to shut down her Depop account (an online personal buying/selling site, like eBay), but the tweet was quickly deleted. She has just re-confirmed that the account will close today.
https://twitter.com/StephanieNala_/status/512934972924379136
Is this an indicator that she will be too busy to maintain it over the next few weeks/months?
The Digital Spy spoilers suggest Steph makes the lives.
I meant to say this in my previous post – but if I had the vast resources of our esteemed hosts at my disposal – the one bet I would be very happy staking at this stage (at very skinny odds) is for Chloe-Jasmine not to win.
I’m convinced she’ll make the lives, and we all know her roke from thereon in.
I’m convinced a “novelty” act will win this year though. It’s the last box for them to tick.
I don’t think that’s a box they ever want to tick, unless a novelty act comes along that has real potential as a pop star.
Does Chloe even make the lives?? caution advised….
Didn’t comment all week as was travelling but will once arena finishes It is all so scripted! Just saw a boy band getting chased by a gang of guys not girls on Xtra Factor. These producers…
Just caught up on today’s show. Very fun, solid episode but nothing blew me away on the talent front. Now that we’ve seen Steph and Fleur, I’m increasingly sure there’s no Matt Cardle, Rebecca Ferguson, or Sam Bailey in this field. That ought to give the producers the ability to pick their winner, a la 2011… but we’re now in an era where their poking and prodding yields less returns than ever. A lot of what they do might hinge on how UK Super Junior is working out in rehearsals at the moment.
CJ – Always puts a smile on my face, can’t help it. Voice was neither better nor worse than room audition.
Fleur – Would be a solid, reasonably entertaining gamma over if it comes to that. Not quite enough juice on the voice to break out of that role in lives, I don’t think. Everything about her is pretty good but not truly standout, really.
Steph – Almost montaged, no room audition shown – and I can see why. That was passable but not great at all. Really interested to see the bootcamp performance that got all that buzz now.
Emily – This was cute and not much else. Disconnected, where her room audition was pretty effortlessly connected. Still think she is heading for a JH chop this year.
Kerianne – That was the best vocal performance of the evening, well connected, gave me goosebumps, but it wasn’t *that* great. There’s rumors circulating she might be the 6th girl who supposedly bounces Chloe O late at bootcamp. She doesn’t really read as a popstar, ultimately, but might XF see value in putting through an everygirl complement to Sam B.’s everywoman last year? I don’t think she’d be a threat to run away with the field like Sam B and Nick did last year.
Ben – Well, they did a nice job challenging the certainty that Jay is the overs alpha with that pimp slot. I continue to find him a modestly better option than Jay in every phase. This audition nailed him down as a rock guy. His vocal grit was a bit of an affectation, but it still gave me some goosebumps.
Already looking forward to the live shows this year for the first time in a while. Talent is good, and a couple hopefully stand out even more once we get to the lives, but more importantly Simon and Cheryl just give the show that extra bite. Mel B is a great addition too. It has to be said the judges really are more important than the talent and I think the ratings may get better this year because of this.
Interesting show last night. It’s clear that there’s a lot invested in Chloe Jasmine, probably good for the lives but limited due to being jazzy/blues vocalist.
Surprising to see a finalist reaudition in the form of Fleur. If she gets through to the lives then that will be another X-Factor first – a finalist in two series.
As for Steph, given the lack of exposure so far and only an OK performance last night, if she really is through to the lives like the rumours suggest then she’s the gamma filler.
Emily – Like CJ, I think variety may be a problem. What’s she like without the guitar?
Kerianne is going nowhere – she’s not on the spoilers list for judges houses. Shame as she was far better than Steph.
And with Ben, at least they’re not turning the overs back into being a joke category this year. They invested plenty in him as well.
Nothing much to report in Xtra Factor apart from the return of yodeler Barclay Beales, who is rumoured to be in the eight piece boyband.
Bootcamp starts on Friday at 9pm, which is later than usual and is presumably to show the formation of the frankenbands and introduce the members. Can’t believe we’re just three weeks from the lives now.
Forgot my other observation – Mel B was nowhere to be seen for more than half of the episode. You think they’d at least try and give the impression that they were taking the competition seriously!
I didn’t see OTY in the preview clip at end of yesterday’s show or in the photos released at midnight. Will be surprising if they don’t show their arena audition.
Ben – can’t be 100% sure (because of the wine last night *hic*) but I think they were lurking in the background as part of the outside “hopefuls” montage. Perhaps a reminder that they are still there. Let’s see what tonight brings as we should then have a reasonable idea (apart from the frankengroups) of the favoured acts.
I went to some of the arenas this year and was hugely surprised to see Chloe-Jasmine’s audition portrayed the way it was. She actually had two arena auditions and the one you saw last night was her second one – the one we saw on the Friday night was a bit of a disaster.
She sang three songs – a jazz ballad, before being prompted by Cheryl to sing Crazy in Love (?) and have more fun with it. This was flunked – she clearly didn’t know the words or had even rehearsed it, and sang it hugely against her own will – so she then sang an acapella version of Valerie which finally got the audience on board. The judges bizarrely then told her to come back tomorrow to audition again and to ‘dress younger’ (she was dressed very old-fashioned and looked old for her age) which prompted a strange 5-10 minute chat with the judges off-mic with a lot of tears. Given the amount of drama and narrative to be spun I’m surprised none of that first audition was shown, but I guess it reaffirms that she’s a shoo-in for the lives and the show is interested in protecting her.
Other than that OTY had a great arena audition, singing a mash-up of The Who’s My Generation with Miley Cyrus’s Can’t Stop. Easily the best-received of the night. If that isn’t being shown as planned then I do wonder what the show has in store for them as of that session it was the only thing close to a ‘moment’ that we seen.
Random aside – Jay James didn’t sing as part of that session but there was a surreal ‘buzz’ about him? Many, many people dressed in t-shirts, talking about him etc. Wasn’t surprised by the plans the show clearly has for him when it aired.
The recorded shows are fascinating to go to in terms of seeing the way the show works (I went to bootcamp last year also) and comparing that with what you see on TV – would highly recommend it to anyone who gets the chance to in future!
I’d be amazed if OTY’s audition doesn’t get shown. They have the look of finalists about them to me – and as you say the show has invested much in them.
The North Korean-style JJ cult sounds disconcerting! I wonder how many of those t-shirts were supplied by TPTB. Also, word of mouth can be manipulated by marketeers (or generated, I should say) and such tactics are definitely not beneath Cowell. (What is??)
A fascinating insight into the mind of a diva, Chloe-Jasmine. What a drama queen!
Well, that was a tremendously clarifying show for me.
Lola’s audition made it clear why she’s their alpha girl. That version didn’t live up to the original, of course, but it was fairly impressive; the tone, looks, and likability are all there. Notice how dowdy her outfit was compared to rooms. I wonder if that was on purpose. Plus of course the repeat of the rejection before her. They are going all out to get the audience rooting for her and avoid a repeat of Tamera.
Helen stepped it up a good bit, but vocals are just pretty good and overall stage presence really isn’t there to be a threat. No idea who will join Jay and Ben in the lives from the overs at this point. They’ve left little room this year to complain about an obvious overs gamma who has barely been shown at all.
More boyband members. Tom Mann has a *really* whiny voice, but I guess the looks overrode that. Hey, 1D has been fine with Louis. Charlie Jones stepped up from rooms. Jake Sims definitely looked the part.
Jake got a decent audition, and they went for the sob story a bit – not enough to put people off – but we also heard he’s not the best singer.
Jack wasn’t shown. Sure looks like boys is Jake/Paul/Andrea, clearing the lane for the boyband. From where I’m sitting they still missed an opportunity not putting him in that band, although who knows what happened backstage – maybe he didn’t want to do it.
No groups shown, are you amazed Sauron? 😉 In fact unless I’m missing something the only group we saw in 2 weeks was Overload, clearly there to be beaten out by the manufactured boyband.
At this point it looks to me like they are invested in Lola and the boyband and not much else. Paul, Jake, Ben, and Jay get to duel to be this season’s Matt Cardle. That’ll be interesting. Not sure who’s going to win that. Not sure the producers really care, though they seem to lean towards Paul and Jay a bit.
I’m surprised, yes. More about the continuity (or lack thereof) of this year’s series, and the seemingly random way it’s been cobbled together. This doesn’t mean OTY are out of the competition though, right?
As an aside, I noticed an ex – boyfriend of Chloe-Jasmine has been spilling the beans on CJ’s ‘all-day drinking and drug binges’!
Surprising lack of OTY and Electric Blonde, but it could still just be that they are mixing it up and not wanting it to seem boring having all the same people on week after week. Now starting to look like Lizzy Pattinson is not going through to lives though, as she was montaged in first round and not shown at all in second.
I think the edits this year are trying to make things look more fair. Everyone likely to make the lives has gotten at least a little feature in one of the two stages at this point. Every category has 5-6 JH acts with at least some background, as well as a bootcamp cut or two. Will make those rounds more exciting/devastating. But it’s not that far off the norm… Lola and Jay both have had two pimp slots, while the boyband’s members have had enormous amounts of time.
Things aren’t looking good for OtY, let’s be honest. They should be encouraged so many people seem to be missing them in various forums, but if the producers are invested enough in the boyband to not show OtY’s audition at all, it means they will likely respond by putting the brakes on harder. I’ve always contended that groups are easier to nobble than soloists due to their reliance on backing tracks and the added difficulty of getting 4 people to perform synchronously.
Once again, Lola is playing the perfect game! There’s no way those rumours about her not going through are true now, surely.
I know it’s almost impossible to over-do the drama insomehow fa, but (for me) she’s walking a fine line. It was a huge pimping… A common problem for these early favourites is the risk of peaking too soon, or viewer compassion fatigue. How do you up the dramatic ante from that?
Personally, I found her a little contrived… And somehow considerably more annoying than, say, Chloe-Jasmine, who is a much more obvious contrivance.
You’re right, though: when Cowell declares you’re the kind of person he wants to win the show – on top of his phone call antics in the room audition – you’re unlikely to be cut before the lives.
Well one way or another I think we’ve now seen everyone, and the bottom line is that while there are a few decent acts in the mix there isn’t a single outstanding act in the competition this year. To me the probable live show acts from the boys and the overs all look competent, and you could probably make a case for them winning the show, but I don’t see any with real long term potential. Both the groups and the girls categories seem to contain acts which seem to have better potential and I still think that’s where I think the winners will come from. Lola and the yet to be manufactured boy band look to be the leading contenders and could be the plan A (or A and B) going into the live shows. Interesting to see how this shapes up over the next couple of weeks
I think someone like Jake going through only means Simon wants ratings this year and doesn’t care that much about who wins, as long as he can get a few of his favoured acts to the semi-finals at least. Unless Simon had a huge U-turn about Jake compared to the rest of the production team, I find it weird that they are now investing time in him, and they know he will be a hugely popular favourite with the girls and many middle England fans with his sob story.
That said we know how good XF can be at nobbling acts, especially with Simon now back on board at the head of the table.
Also rather funny how like some of the old acts we see in these guys. CJ will definitely take the role of Katie Waissel I feel (a bit harsh as she seems a better singer, but being so posh she has that villain-esque feel for us poorer folk). Looks like Lola will get the alpha girl role at least to start with with most likely Lauren or Steph being the gamma girl, but at this stage with bootcamp to come we will see how they edit these contenders.
The boys 3 almost looked wrapped up already with Jake, Paul and Andrea, but I still have this feeling in my gut that they will reject Jake for someone else… surely one of the other boys will get a better edit at bootcamp compared to these 3? Would be the ultimate TV production as said in the article if we go down to Jake v Paul for the final spot. Right now it seems Paul for alpha boy, Andrea to go reasonably far because as said he has a novelty factor to him aswell and one of the other boys not really shown as much thus far to get a better edit at bootcamp but be gamma boy into the lives. Lets see?
The groups well OTY did not feature a surprise, but as I repeat there surely has to be some favourable edits for others at bootcamp and maybe they are one. Hopefully they go through with the girlgroup and 8 piece boyband.
Overs well Ben and Jay are obvious contenders for alpha over and the gamma over is to be decided between Fleur, Helen and Stevi. I just have this odd feeling Stevi will be on the show as there is no point of letting a clown get all the way to JH if you are not to have interest as using him as the novelty act. This also leads me to think we may have a surprise in store as only one of Ben and Jay get picked to allow another female on board to be that gamma over, pacing the way for most likely Jay to go far in this competition as alpha over and if Paul/Andrea/Jake go through or at least 2 of them there is still enough split for female votes to allow the teen votes for the boyband to go far.
Anyone know when the JH were?
What gets me is the smug clown from the Daily Star… tweeting he was at the girls judges house filming but cannot say whos through. Strange that just after that Lauren shortened in the betting but rumours suggested she hasnt made it.
There is a betting rule that if you cannot win its a void bet so technically all bets placed after the judges house filming on the XFactor contestants who never made it should be voided. Especially given those in the know will be filling their boots on all the value.
We really cannot work out who is through with several of them drifting and being cut despite rumours flying around.
Oh to be a worker for the Daily Star and in the know….
It does seem very cloudy this year which suggests to me the wilcard thing could be happening.
I cannot see how anyone can think Lola is a better long term prospect than Lauren and if Lola is through ahead of Lauren then i can only suggest Cowell and co are clueless.
Those bets can win, because the rules of the show are not that if you are eliminated at JH/bootcamp/any time you cannot win. Anyone can be brought back into the show as a wildcard at any time.
I was wondering about which two out of Jack, Andrea or Jake would go through but I think Jake is safely through now based on his treatment last night.
Trouble is though Jake, Ben and Jay are essentially the same act.