A few words of caution for the elimination market this week. I have a theory, based purely on personal experience, that weeks 3-5 are a more reliable period for pre-show elimination betting, and in some ways things get a bit trickier in weeks 6-8.
That might seem curious given there are fewer contestants involved by this point. Let me explain. I like weeks 3-5 more than weeks 1-2 because we usually have an act on a sympathy bounce, and one coming off it. Also, with plenty of acts still around at this stage in the competition, it often takes a week to soften someone up before producers go in for the kill. This was best displayed by Jack and Paul this year: both got the 1-2 killer combination of suggested rebellion one week succeeded by acquiescence in something worse the following week. This signposted their subsequent eliminations in advance.
With the deadwood largely gone from the competition, weeks 6-8 sometimes see producer U-turns not so easy to guess beforehand. And with less fodder left in the competition, these can often be decisive, as can a performance that fails to catch on – just ask Ella Henderson. There were some tortuous twists in producer favour from weeks 6-8 last year involving the likes of Sam Callahan, Hannah Barrett, Luke Friend and Tamera Foster. With that caveat in mind, what to make of the elimination market this weekend?
The remaining eight acts are sharply split into two groups of four: the first lot dominate the elimination market, with the remaining four all big prices. Only The Young head lists at 9/4. I think that’s deserved, despite some sections of the Sofabet forum suggesting one such twist in producer favour might benefit them this week over Stereo Kicks. Their Miss Dynamix-style messy staging last Saturday, and on Sunday being left for 20 minutes in the last three awaiting news of the singoff contestants, don’t bode well to me. The last one announced safe has signposted an act in imminent danger a few times already this series.
Their song choice of ‘I Wanna Be Like You’ taps into what they’ve largely been performing up till now. You can say it delights the demo, or give a more pessimistic take if you believe this vein only just saw them clear last week’s singoff. Still, the song was considered interestingly quirky enough for a Katie Waissel pimp slot in 2010, and I can’t rule out a producer switcheroo, especially as market movements on Betfair yesterday indicated growing confidence behind them. A waiting brief until tonight’s show is advised.
Up till now, Stereo Kicks have been alpha group, despite two singoff appearances. Staging and running order slots are just two indications of that. Yet this is already their second attempt to avoid another bottom two appearance after a sympathy bounce – the first attempt failed in week 4. They’ve shortened into a best-priced 7/2 in the elimination market after a last-minute change of song yesterday – still unknown when this article was posted. My first cynical thoughts were: what a useful way to make the band a talking point; and it offers a useful excuse for a save should they appear in the singoff again. Blame Louis! Unless producers have indeed switched horses in this category.
If they are looking to keep Stevi Ritchie (3/1 for elimination) in the competition beyond week 6 – they did for his novelty precedents such as Jedward, Wagner and Rylan, though not for Kitty Brucknell – a Stereo Kicks and Only The Young bottom two would be the most obvious alternative given that the two groups have three singoff appearances already. Many have already tired of Stevi’s shtick, but I can’t back the novelty to fall below the Katie Waissel Memorial Position of seventh (Kitty Brucknell didn’t either) at that price before the show. He’s also partly following the Jedward/Wagner playbook with a ‘Mambo Number 5’/’She Bangs’ medley.
Still it would be best for Stevi to avoid last place in the televote if a controversial singoff save was a minimum requirement. As I’ve mentioned before, the two groups have early bottom two appearances and are thus the most obvious candidates for last place this week – so long as producers decide to work with a Jay James sympathy bounce rather than against it.
JJ has a rather challenging ‘Empire State of Mind’/’New York New York’ medley, though the latter was used to continue the Sam Bailey re-ramp in Big Band week last year. If the assumption is that producers want to avoid getting rid of Stevi – which not everyone agrees with – it would be easier for them to work with Jay’s sympathy bounce, as it would be very hard to justify a Stevi save in a singoff against him. But again, I’d rather wait on tonight’s show.
That leaves the four outsiders in the elimination market. Some have wondered whether Lauren Platt or Fleur East have a surprise bottom two appearance in them this week. The former’s song choice of ‘Smile’ doesn’t particularly appeal and she’s not reached the heights of her first two live show performances since. However, it’s worth bearing in mind that Louis was name-checking her as a finalist in last week’s show, where staging as well as judges’ comments continued to be wholly positive.
Fleur returns to ‘Bang Bang’ after her acclaimed rendition of it at judges’ houses. I don’t have anything against returning to audition songs: Alexandra Burke and Matt Cardle are just two high-achieving examples. You could carp by saying it’s a return to a rap-heavy number that bears little resemblance to the theme. I think producers are trying to play safe by returning to her breakout performance.
It will be interesting to see if Andrea gets a continued re-ramp, as Sam Bailey did in 2013 for Big Band week after an acclaimed mid-season pimp slot. Some have questioned how good the song choice ‘Summertime’ is, but it’s hardly ‘That’s Life’ (with its 100% elimination record for the theme). Ben’s choice of ‘Cry Me A River’ suggests continuing producer favour – it was the song chosen to relaunch Tamera’s bid for glory last year after her previous week’s singoff save. I don’t expect either in the bottom two.
A reminder for punters that there’s a 15-minute Strictly overlap tonight. That leaves the first up in the running order looking exposed, though Ben Haenow took it in his stride for week 4. What are your continuing thoughts? Do let us know in the comments section below.
After Simon’s comments last week, I still believe he is considering signing OTY after the show so I would be completely unsurprised to see them pimped again. But most people seem to think the only reason they got good treatment last week was to get them above Paul. We’ll see tonight!
Logically they should be throwing everything at Jay to get rid of him if Ben is still their alpha over, and surely it’s time to let one of them go.
I agree on this – I think OTY and Fleur will be the real winners from the show this year, regardless of finishing position.
I really don’t think so!
They were pimped out of the bottom 2! That’s it! They wanted to get them on the tour, that’s it! Just look at what line-up we’d have without them…Hardly anyone else left to put on a show. I am sure they will drop them like nobody’s business now that they are secured to go on the road.
Despite not catching on with voters it is obvious they still see commercial potential in SK so they will continue to push them at all costs.
Looking at the song list, I wouldn’t be surprised if Fleur is put on first. She’s the only one with a “open the show with a bang” (no pun intended) song. Plus she had a late performing slot last week (not that it’s ever fair).
Ben got slot one seemingly when the producers were confident he had a strong enough vote to save him opposite Strictly – and they were right. They were also looking to regain some credibility after week three’s dire sing off so put a strong performer on first. They won’t put any act first if they want to keep them and don’t trust the public’s support.
I think as soon as we see the running order of the show we’ll have a good idea of which group is alpha. I’m sure the group they’ve gone with will get a later slot in the running order in this very crucial week for the groups.
I’m sure the producers would love to stifle JJ’s bounce if they could. He seems like the best option to go this week, but with preferred acts OTY and SK probably on the down, and JJ on a bounce, it might be that the timing of everything hasn’t quite worked out for them.
After the song choices I’m pretty sure the producers are still behind Stevi this week. I’m honestly not sure whether in a show that still has OTY and Fleur an act like Stevi is required, but the producers still seem to think so.
“being left for 20 minutes in the last three awaiting news of the singoff contestants, don’t bode well to me. The last one announced safe has signposted an act in imminent danger a few times already this series.”
Hi Daniel, thanks for the latest in the line of a series of thought provoking article. Have you got any idea why they might deliberately flag up acts that are in danger if they are acts they want to dispose of them the next week? This seems entirely counter intuitive, surely its better to let the public assume they are comfortably safe? Leaving OTY fans on edge for 20 minutes last week would surely make them more likely to vote this week than announcing them safe in 4th or 5th place?
That’s a really good question and your counter argument is a very valid one. My argument is that this series, by leaving an act such as Jake or Jack as last to be announced safe, has generally tried to plant the subliminal suggestion that the act involved is a third division player in the competition. Vice versa, the first act announced safe is subliminally considered one of the leading lights (Fleur, Lauren). I admit it’s an opinion that won’t be held by everyone to say the least.
Thanks for the reply Daniel. If it had been a 100% pattern I would be more worried, but it could just be that they want a believable act to be the last saved as it makes for a more dramatic final save.
I think the fact that Simon, when asked which act he would steal given the choice, he said OTY was more significant than anything else, especially when combined with many more positive comments from him. Brian this week has also predicted OTY to be in the final 4, alongside Fleur, Ben and Andrea. OTY’s tweets this week have been incredibly bullish, more so than any other week to date, and the itunes preview sounds absolutely superb. (thanks George!) These seem to be indisputable positives compared with the intangible nature of the negatives you have mentioned.
You could well be right, Barry. I will reiterate that their staging last weekend was absolutely horrible, and could easily have put them in the bottom two. They seem to have a lot of fans here and in other forums. There’s a tendency among them to ignore that carcrash singoff performance, and the weeks 2-3 VTs and staging (and the week 3 vocals), which were awful.
Where I do agree with OTY fans is that there’s a gap in the market for this kind of act, but you’d never guess that from the majority of their treatment so far on the show. That’s why Simon’s highly positive comments last week felt so unusual. But given that he said what he did and they did escape the bottom two, an attempt to launch them further in the competition this week is something I’m definitely not discounting.
If I were the producers, I’d be wanting to keep the likes of Only The Young and Fleur around until the end. The likes of Andrea, Jay and Lauren aren’t capable of delivering the type of performances which would count as Saturday Night Entertainment.
There’s obviously numerous reasons why the show would want to keep Stevi around but since Jay seems like the only act left who isn’t of any value to the show/producers, and with him bouncing, surely sacrificing Stevi is the next best option this week, with Jay being shown the door next week.
Part of me thinks that the producers don’t really need to decide which group to back since they both offer different things for the show. But I guess they’re splitting votes and one group will presumably soar (maybe not that high) once the other is gone. The thing with Simon’s comments to OTY is I don’t know how honest he was with the comments of “this competition wouldn’t be the same without you” (he said a similar thing to Fleur the week before) and “I really hope people pick up the phone”. A judge rarely gives an act that kind of comment a week before they are voted off. On the other hand, the ridiculous standing ovation for Stereo Kicks obviously shows the producers are still right behind them. I guess last week’s vote may determine what happens tonight/tomorrow. For once, I have no idea how it’ll go. I do have a feeling though that by tomorrow night Stereo Kicks will be the last remaining group in the competition.
Tough week to call at first look
I think Lauren will land in the B2 if she bores as per usual, but want to see her perform before backing that
The groups are an obvious choice and OTY are gone if they land B2 imo
JJ was poor last week and deserved B2, I think that the free voting in this series does add some more emphasise on singing and performance, therefore a bad or boring performance will see the share of the vote go down. With the bounce and JJ getting his voice back I don’t see him in the B2
iTunes previews are up. OTY sounds really good, no sign of them targeting them but it depends on running order/staging.
Can’t see Lauren in B2 think Her fan base is too big right now compared to some left
Stereo Kicks are doing Mack the Knife!
So based on iTunes previews Stereo Kicks appear to be doing Mack the Knife.
a rather boring choice, isn’t it?
UK iTunes previews are available to listen to… well some of them… not yet able to listen to Fleur, Andrea or Stevi or SK…
As mentioned above looks like Stereo Kicks are doing Mack the Knife… I just don’t think they have the personality to pull that off… and it could be as cheesy as hell… I smell a B2 appearance…
of the others that are available to listen to… I think they are studio recordings, rather than the live rehearsal versions we’ve had up to now…
Lauren & Smile… very silky and retro… she has a lovely tone… is the song too mellow for big band night… when everyone else is doing bigger numbers?
OTY & I wanna be like you… I liked it, jazzy, fun, very roaring 20s but still keeping their personality… seems to be mainly the boys singing… probably not a bad thing… can just see the big production number already… maybe TPTB have (finally) switched Groups?
Ben & Cry me a river… it’s very much like the Buble version… feels a bit samey… imo, not Ben’s best performance… picked up towards the end… like many big band songs maybe this is probably better viewed as a performance… so you get the full deal?
Jay & Empire State of Mind / New York New York… the whole 90 sec preview is a very faithful version of NYNY… competent karaoke, but could be very cheesy… what happened to Empire state of mind?… do they squeeze that into the 60 secs that isn’t previewed?… imagine he will look dapper and suave… like a young Kevin Costner…
2 more songs available to preview on iTunes…
Fleur & Bang Bang… the Jessie J song gets a swing arrangement… not sure I’m liking this as much as her Judges Houses performance of it… I’m sure she will look stunning and perform the heck out of it… but will there be a rap?
Stevi & Mambo #5 / She Bangs… Stevi doing his best Wagner / Jedward… sounds flat… and as with most Stevi performances just like a drunk dude who can half carry a tune doing cheesy karaoke…
still no Andrea or SK…
so jay is highlighting the lyric “start spreading the news, i’m leaving today” . hmmmmmm 😉
Mack the Kinife arranged for 8 voices and big band. How do you do that? Line each? All 8 singing together like a tiny crowd of football supporters? I can’t think of a line of that song that lends itself to harmony.
I don’t see how it can be anything but a car crash of biblical proportions. Even if James sings most of the vocal the rest become spare parts and I don’t think he has the character to deliver a song like this. It’s damn hard to do well.
There’s no upside to this song choice at all, as far as I can see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEllHMWkXEU
Plenty of scope for them to sing a bit each. Fine song
Potiential for Pimp Slot.
Eton Road (admittedly there were only 4 of them) murdered it (not in a good way) from a pimp slot and it proved popular, so there is form for a group to do well with this.
I’m pleasantly surprised at how good the Only The Young track sounds. If they can pull it off as well live, I’d find it hard to see them being sent home this week.
Girls dont sing at all until 10 seconds left from the Itunes version.
Not sure what to make of that.
If OTY are given the chance to shine tonight then based on that preview, they will. Of course, do it in the death slot and they could be thrust down memory lane if necessary as well…
I consider Mack the Knife to be an uninspired choice for SK, but I’m definitely adopting a wait and see approach to this week’s show because I have no idea.
I’m saying an SK Stevie B2 before anything has played out
Andrea and SK up now. Mack the Knife is very uninspiring.
Andrea & Summertime… our Andrea doesn’t do shade and light does he… he all is all powerhouse vocals… when I think a song like this works best when it’s a little more understated and the emotion sells it… he’s no Leona or Fantasia… still it will prob delight his fans…
SK & Mack the knife… bit meh… like I mentioned in an earlier post… they don’t have the personality for this song… and I bet they have no idea what they are actually singing about…
Going to be boring enough show to hold an audience, running order going to be important with Strictly overlap and very difficult to predict the night. Comments and VT’s also.
Out of all the song choices Jay and Fleur seem most potentially troublesome.
Performance Order:
Andrea
Lauren
Jay
Stereo Kicks
Ben
Only the Young
Stevie Ritchie
Fleur East
Honestly no idea where that running order leaves us.
Is Andrea not English then?!
I’m the English *waves flag*
Dermot hammering the message home again….
“What does the support of people in THIS country mean to you?”
“It means so much, I’m enjoying myself so much in THIS country”.
Late slot for OTY. Why on earth is Lauren on so early again? Fleur has the pimp slot, Stevi has the penultimate slot. They want him to survive one more week at least. Think SK will be in the B2 but unsure who’ll join them.
Is Lauren the one getting shunted here? Because I’m struggling to read the runes of the running order.
Can’t see them losing her this early and I certainly can’t see them taking Cheryl out by the end of Week 6…
Lauren is first after Strictly. Andrea got pushed under that bus. She was boting though and Simon was happy to point it out. Could be a surprise on.
Hi, my name is Andrea and I’m an Italian tourist….Such a shame my voice is so good as the public like me irrespective of whether TPTB do. Btw, thanks for the red & black staging this week, and those comments Simon 😉
Emphasis on Italian but embraced as British… Discussion about Spice Girls and Pavarotti… Simon brings up the face pulling again as well as the Leona Lewis comparison… and he’s followed by the much talked about Sainsbury’s advert.
De-ramp.
You missed the SCD overlap, the red & black staging & the fact Louis called him a “Diva”….his biggest deramp yet. Great for us layers!
Not to mention the strange diminishing dandelion(?) image on the screen, nothing says summer like erm a dying weed
They have certainly not given up on getting Andrea.
So Fleur is getting pimped during Lauren’s VT lol.
Big sister and everyone’s BFF has been in Andrea’s & Lauren’s VTs!
Does this, with the pimp slot, mean that Fleur might need all the help they can give her?
Or does it mean they think she can make a move for the win? We’re at the time of the series now where winners are made.
and now we see her mum and sister…
And Lauren has Diana Vickers staging
Andrea memory holed by Sainsbury ad?
Anyone giving odds on how many VTs Fleur will appear in this week? They couldn’t be pushing her any harder if they tried.
Subliminals shout: Stop Right Now (thank you very much) playing during Andrea’s bus tour.
Wonder if there’s anyone with the gritty passion Simon was talking about in the competition.
Memory holed with a chat about Spice Girls – Pavarotti and the advert bresk.
He still sang the hell out of it and must be polling very high to get this sort of treatment from Simon.
Gwaaaaarn Andrea. 🙂
Lauren boring tag from Simon but not as much a deramp as Andrea
Lauren slots not favourable again have to feel they r deramping her for some reason.
Great cut to Simon drinking his tea the moment after Andrea’s performance instead of applauding. The deramp continues.
Was Lauren’s static (boring, according to Simon) swing the equivalent of a plinth? On the long shots she sometimes blended into the background she was so still.
It may have been a coincidence, but I thought it was interesting that we saw Lauren wearing a poppy in her VT given the advert that preceded it.
I felt Simon’s comments to Andrea were more a deramp of Simon’s status for the week.
All the judges ganging up on him saying he was wrong.
Louis accusing him of being deaf. To which he agrees!
Mel B inciting the audience to cheer to Andrea.
I’m guessing that one of Simon’s acts is in for a kicking tomorrow night.
“Let’s meet Fleur’s family!”
They’re not being subtle are they? 😀
Jay’s introduction is messed up by judges bickering.
If you can’t have Fleur, have her twin sister chatting to Derbot. This is too funny to be real.
Jay singing a song with the line.. i’m leaving today… now that’s a moment!!
Two ad breaks freeing up time for SK in the next part. Lauren part was filled with distractions and certainly not boosting her.
All the kids saying Fleur great says Dermot to one. Beginning to wonder is Fluer needing this big push as votes low. It seems excessive even by TPTB standards.
I think Andrea is killing the votes. This was all guns blazing to get him and I don’t think they want him out just yet (I see no reason to leave Mel actless so early on) so I think they are desperately trying to get him back with the pack. He must be head and shoulders above everyone else.
I do think he came out nicely of the situation, Simon’s critique felt almost to cruel and Andrea had his best I am sorry face on.
Very distracting staging for Jay with the woman in the glass!!
Jay has a half naked lady dancing around in a glass. He is singing a karaoke classic. He is out tomorrow.
Jay B2? I hope he beats it but they are trying to get 1 group out of trouble.
I wonder if they’re trying to get both groups out of trouble and have Jay in the bottom two with either Andrea or Lauren. With the constant ad breaks the show doesn’t feel like it’s started yet. I think Stereo Kicks and Ben will be performing one after which will allow people get into the show a bit more.
Bar singer impression with tables either side… and a slightly seedy bar with lady dancing in a large glass very distractingly. And the moving New York skyline is off-putting too.
And he chucked his grandad’s jacket away! How dare he!
Louis make a fair point about the distraction. Mel criticises the vocal but the audience don’t boo too much. Cheryl praises his performance as ‘good’ and queries the accent. Simon tries to say it’s the best so far which is slightly farcical… and everyone realises that.
I think they’re trying to prevent the bounce.
I’m so pleased to be wearing my late Grandfather’s suit….. I’ll take the jacket off and chuck it away at the earliest possible opportunity!
If my memory serves me right, didn’t Rylan appear in that large cocktail glass for one of his performances?
I thought it was a backing dancer – was it for his Spice Girls medley?
Three acts gone….. Three advert breaks! Surely they can’t continue at this rate?! There’s more music in the adverts than in the show.
No doubt we will see later Fleur and Ben are the pair they want in 1st
There I was thinking Jay did a good job! The judges crucified him! It did show pretty clearly that he’s nowhere near as good as Sam Bailey, but that’s by the by.
I think he’s the target, but have the producers bitten off more than they can chew this time by taking on someone due for a bounce, and maybe evoking some sympathy votes with those comments?
Jay just got murdered in public view. Awful. The song, the girl, the comments, the bickering.
He’s dead in a ditch.
Didn’t Simon introduce Jay as ‘representing Wales’ as well – that would be Wales with the population of 3m people!
Being fair to Jay he takes it on the chin and said a nice little speech at the end. Could save him
How bad are these boys?
I think producers realised that and cut James out for sympathy
Surely that’s bottom 2 right there.
Stereo Kicks were very good! Much better than Lauren or Jay this week, and a better, confident VT and judge comments, especially from Simon and Cheryl. Getting them both is a coup this series.
Here comes the…. “Didn’t you do so well, considering that you had only 24 hours” line…… followed by the name check challenge to Louis.
It’s surely not going to be enough – I think honestly the producers know that at this stage, but looks like they still have enough favour to get a B2 save tomorrow.
Ben memory holing SK too not good for the boys
How nice is Ben, taking his mum to the premiere?
Not staged at all, of course.
That was outstanding! I loved it!
Ben looks great but to me his voice sounds all wrong for this.
SK getting another pimping. JJ Lauren b2 looking like a decent possibility.
I don’t think so. Didn’t think SK got a great pimping either and was a weak performance.
is this the deramp everyone instead of Fleur week? I wonder how the voting statistics are last week
I thought Ben was good. Vote stealer
I’m getting a 2011 vibe where everyone was flattened for Little Mix. It doesn’t feel as nasty as 2011, thank goodness, but the vibe is there.
Diana Vickers is trending on twitter. I should give the general public more credit, they do remember performances from 7 years ago!
*6
Good or bad for LP?
Bad, I would say. Looks like she just copied the performance.
Was Ben supposed to memory whole SK? Especially if you consider the distracting comments for the boys.
Anyways, tonight has ben a borefest so far.
I hate big band week in general personally
Lots of lovely gold lighting for Ben. He worked those close ups well, I thought. He’d obviously studied the Buble version but still managed to make it his own.
Did woman in glass have a wardrobe malfunction, are they trying to stop Jay bounce. SK were bad and judgers made a complete mockery of it all with carry on with names and Louis piece of paper. they split them in the VT Team Stereo, Team Kicks.
True for Daniel a week to be cautious. SK bottom two again, saved and split?
Louis just name-checked OTY (this can’t be good for SK). They looked humble and fun in their VT, with a very good song choice. TPTB might have switched horses…
Story so far
Kill kill Andrea
Lauren: meh, end of journey feel to her vt
Jay: not a former navy man anymore, they want him gone gone but we’re they playing for the sympathy?
Der kicks: were bloody awful but set up for a save
Ben: one of nicest VTs in history, comment intended to motivate votes?
OTY: poor and swallowed up by the stage
To come
Stevi: not time to go yet
Fleur: has already been on the show more than Dermot so in favour very much
I think OTY did a great performance, great staging, great judges comments and appeals to vote… not de-ramped at all
For me judges comments were out of kilter with the performance which suggests lots
Must add though OTY got the One Direction memorial comments…. Hard working etc
Mel’s kids are in love with Only the Young now? I swear they loved Stereo Kicks a few weeks back…
Mel’s kids seem to have switched allegiance.
OTY the alpha group surely?
I thought that was very good for OTY – which was lit up on the stage. I think SK are in big trouble. Yes they were name checked, but in a mocking and obvious kind of way.
Yet again I’m proven right on OTY. When are you all going to see they are being genuinely pimped now? Simon wants to sign them!
Direct appeal from Louis (and Simon) for people to vote for Only the Young. They’re backing them.
So Mel’s kids love OTY? I thought a couple of weeks ago they loved Stereo Kicks? Possibly representing a change in preference in the groups?
That was meant to be OTY’s moment. It’s a shame that it seemed to fall flat. The judges tried to save it, but hmm.
Fall flat? Apart from the mess-up on the lines it was great fun.
As someone who has enjoyed OTY from the beginning, something about it didn’t connect with me. It didn’t seem to connect with the studio either. The atmosphere was quite flat afterwards.
I did love the dancing bit, but I think maybe the girls (particularly Parisa) are more suited to the lead vocals.
It should be enough for tonight with the pimping and the good song choice, but better is needed for them to proceed much further, and I think the producers would very much like that to happen now. They’ve definitely switched alpha groups.
I actually thought that was Laurens best performance in weeks. Simon poured cold water all over it of course. Everyone else has been a bit mediocre, largely down to the theme. You just know this has been set up for Fleur to smash it out of the park at the end…
What was with all the aerial shots for OTY? At times it was difficult to make them out.
Are the groups going to be the only acts that don’t get an advert act immediately after their performance?
Lauren sacrificed for OTY to be in final seems a real possibility. That said this week was first week Lauren got a negative judges comment and that was only Simon
This is painful. He really is shit. I think I could dance like a twat and sing out of tune as next year’s joke act!
Stevi bottom 2 I think. That was his least competent performance so far and it’s not funny any more.
I disagree, I still find him hilarious. My last comment was genuinely “Go on public, let him stay one more week!”
Stevi stays.
Yeah Stevi in danger I think B2 between Jay SK and Stevi
I’m not sure about that. He didn’t sing either song very well, Louis reminded the public that Lola and Paul left over him, Mel desperately tried not to drum a sympathy vote, Cheryl went down the ‘enjoy’ line and remarks about the distraction while forgetting the vocal, Simon gives an excuse for a bad performance.
And Dermot re-emphasises the ‘worst performance’ comment.
Bottom two and a controversial save?
Not sure based on those comments how they could save him?
Allow him to do a musical number in the sing off and Cheryl could sway as ‘he hasn’t been given the right songs’. That’s fine as long as he isn’t against Lauren as is second bottom. Simon would then just take it to deadlock. If he is against Lauren… Louis might have to do the dirty work again, again based on being given the ‘wrong song’ and Lauren not developing as a performer. They’ve got an issue if he’s bottom of the vote, though.
No way after tonight Lauren is being sucked under SK and Jay
wagner medley all over again… just need the bongos
Wagner didn’t do Mambo Number 5 did he?
The most worrying thing is I was watching that thinking Wagner actually performed She Bangs better…
The ultimate diss haha
Lauren had the exact same staging as Diana did when she performed Smile in Big Band Week, a mess and a half.
SK will go against anyone bar Jay imo. Interesting how the VT split them into two groups with one winning. Also, Simon picking 4 of them as the best singers was very ‘Ashford, you’re the main man’ in my point of view.
My guess is that Jay and SK will both be Bottom 2, but I don’t really know who will stay.
Stevi and J with Stevi being ‘shock’ save. OTY circling the drain as well now…
Not sure I like this, vocals don’t seem strong enough band drowning her out
Will be pimped tho
I think they managed to get the sound balance right as it went on but it was a struggle to start with. I don’t think the mess at the start was necessarily planned.
What did we think? Was Fleurs moment I felt like she didn’t take it. Anyone else?
I thought last week was more of a moment than this week. It should keep her going but it all depends where she sits in the vote.
Fleur is very, very talented. They’re going for the win with her
Whole night was underwhelming but looks like TPTB are swinging behind Fleur. For me that didn’t work as well as at Judges house.
Andrea was amazing. Best performance of the night by a mile.
Really? I honestly struggled to understand a lot of it (I think someone referred to diction being important in this song previously) . I will watch it back. I think taking the long game on deramping him will have an effect.
I actually thought Lauren was the best tonighr! I could be biased having money on her, but I felt the week lent itself to the tone of her voice. Prob too late for her anyway now as I think she has missed the boat. Feels like Ben is hamstrung by the theme or song choice most weeks. He can still turn it around yet.
I think we saw the start of the stevi deflation tonight, alongside the luke warm oty comments leaves me thinking a jay bounce of any sort could present us with an oty / stevi or oty stereo kicks bottom 2. Plus anyone know what happened at the end of the oty song… one of them literally dived off the front of the stage for a few seconds.
Incidentally don’t think the arrangement quite nailed it as a moment, but not because of anything that Fleur did. She looks like the most commercially viable performer they have and they’re going to try and push her to the win I think.
Judges revealing their hands on Xtra Factor for me. Louis describing Jay as ‘karaoke’. He must be done. As annoying as not backing him at 5s earlier today is I have taken evens now as I feel they will not save him over anyone else.
When they were 5-1, OTY were favourites to go and SK and Stevi were also lower odds. As Daniel said, pre show predictions are a lot tougher at this stage. Hindsight, however, remains 20:20.
This is true, but that price was a tempter after last week and I was close to having a bit on it.
I did think they would try to bounce Jay, and this on paper looked a good week for him in terms of the theme . I def didn’t expect the negativity that we saw do perhaps I am guilty of being wise after the event. That will be the gambler in me 🙂
less than 15 mins after the show… UK iTunes update…
#66 Stereo Kicks, Mack the Knife…
#161 Ben, Man in the mirror…
#163 Lauren, Smile…
#192 Ben, Cry me a river…
Maybe the Kicks are finally gaining some traction with the kids?!
Stereo Kicks have had the highest-charting iTunes sales for the last three weeks, as well as the highest YouTube views. They have the most Twitter followers. They have the most Twitter mentions. Many kids can’t afford to vote except their 5 free votes on the app, but they ARE popular with their demographic.
That is depressing. I thought they were decent tonight to be fair. Can’t see them anywhere near B2.
Is it depressing because you dislike their target demographic, then? Because James has a great voice and they’ve done a bang-up job this week and last.
Fair point. The lead singer is decent but I am not a fan of the 8. I feel they have been protected more than most acts as well, but you are probably right, they are simply an act that would never appeal to me.