As the show opened, Ben was trading at 1.79 on Betfair, with Fleur available at 2.44. By the end of the opening group song with Take That, Fleur had come in to favourite. Announced in the pimp slot, with Ben in the coffin slot? Check. Standing in the middle of the three acts, the gold medal winner’s position on a podium? Check. Dressed in gold, flanked by Ben and Andrea both in black? Check. Singing with Gary Barlow while Ben got the one whose name nobody can remember? Check.
Ben’s first VT hilariously started with prominent shots of the VOTE FLEUR EAST bus. The rest of the VT, though, was as positive as homecomings get (with the possible fleeting exception of the “Ben’s other mate” caption, implying he has only two), with emotional family members and sizeable crowds. He started, worryingly, in a glass box but smashed his way out of it, Eric Saade style. You could see staging red flags in the raised platform and cage if you wanted to, but you could also see it as high concept stuff with gold aplenty. Comments were positive enough, focusing on Ben being what the X Factor is all about.
We didn’t have long to wait in Andrea’s VT to see him stuffing his face with cake surrounded by Italian flags, just after his sister had told him to come back home to Italy soon. Mel then told him singing at the Albert Hall would be a once-in-a-lifetime moment, which presumably Andrea would quite like not to be the case. The roulette theme allowed for red and black aplenty, and it was a diva-ish performance with vocal gymnastics: impressive, but nothing new. Louis told Andrea he’d have a great career, Simon told him he’d done brilliantly and Tulisa called him a brilliant singer. Appeals for votes were conspicuous by their absence; indeed, Tulisa’s “I want everyone to…” did not lead to a “vote”, but a “rewatch your first audition”. Okay, then. We then cut to audience members holding pizza and tiramasu in the colours of the Italian flag.
Subtly introduced by Simon with “this is the big one”, Fleur got a nice enough homecoming VT and a huge production designed to make her look like a star. Producers decided to mess with our figures of speech by decking the stage out in huge red flags but writing “CHAMPIONS” on them, making the literal red flags into metaphorical green flags. Or something. There was a four-judge standing ovation and a full-on pimping: Louis called her an “international star” and appealed for votes; Tulisa signed off with “you go girl, you’ve got this”; and Simon reminded us how she’d been pursuing her dream for ten years and demanded votes to get her through to tomorrow. We then cut to her local mayor (those of you playing X Factor final drinking games: drink). Not everyone in the comments was entirely convinced that it came off as intended, and nor were punters: at the end of round one, Ben was very marginally favourite on Bettfair again.
Ben was excited to be duetting with Ed Sheeran, in a beautifully staged performance that ended with a hug from Ed and a reminder that Fleur is not the only act who can get songs they cover to number one. Andrea was similarly excited to be duetting with 2012’s sixth-place finisher Ella Henderson, in a performance with noticeably colder lighting than Ben and Ed’s; it ended with Ella saying he’s an “Italian stallion, but we should embrace him”. Still, though, for both Ben and Andrea tonight any negatives were relatively gentle fare compared to some of the deramps we’ve witnessed in past finals (think ‘Candy’, ‘Hey Ya’, ‘Last Christmas’, ‘Move On Up’).
The ramping, though, reached new heights: in a reversal of the usual modus operandi, Fleur’s duet had the star introducing her after the opening stanza, none-too-subtly suggesting she was the bigger star of the two; “Fleur is in the building”. The market wasn’t impressed, however, as by the end of round two the Betfair odds were back to where they’d been at the start of the show.
Andrea was unsurprisingly announced as in third place. As for Ben and Fleur, in our view overall it was a case of “as you were”; we interpreted this show in much the same way as we have the previous three or four – clear preference for Fleur, with a sense that Ben is a perfectly acceptable winner if they can’t get her over the line. And so we return to the question we grappled with in our preview: are you inclined to believe or doubt the Daily Star’s claim that Ben topped the semi-final vote?
How did you read tonight? Do let us know below.
Good night for me so far, Andrea 3rd place also brings in the 3/1 bet I had on Ben for Top Male.
Fleur will get the votes tomorrow with Uptown Funk. But will it be enough to win?
Fleur really underwhelmed tonight. She still has a chance, I suppose, because Ben didn’t deliver a true killer, but I think it’s Ben’s to lose with MITM rather than Fleur’s to win with UF, and I doubt Ben will choke.
#justice4stoney
I’ll repeat what I said in my comment on the previous article: An expected final 2, but I think Ben’s got this. Fleur didn’t come across well tonight, and the fervent bordering-on-hilarious pimping suggest to me that some people somewhere are very worried…
I commented earlier in the week that while Ben’s treatment over the series has been neutral-to-positive – he hasn’t needed help – the producers have seen the need to heavily pimp Fleur more weeks than not for her to make it the same distance. Ergo I think the Star leak is credible and Ben’s miles ahead. Fleur was vocally significantly poorer than him tonight too.
I reckon that not only will Fleur not win, but when we see the voting figures she was never that close to the top. Bit like Marcus Collins I think.
Totally agree – Ben is Matt Cardle, Fleur is Marcus Collins.
I think that Ben will be the widest margin winner the show has had.
Fanfic idea: Ed Sheeran squeezing his tuna baguette into Ben’s wide margin.
Such great pun potential. Let me remain pure.
Dermot just said on Xtra that Fleur’s first performance was his highlight. Maybe he’s just relentlessly on-message but I wonder if it went down better in the arena than on TV. Can’t see any reason why Fleur would be given such a messy presentation. feels that Fleur has lost some momentum tonight. If she won the semi she’s probably OK but Ben wouldn’t need Daily Star figures last week to be home and dry.
I’m fully expecting an ‘anatomy of a pimp’ article from Sofabet detailing the kitchen sink techniques they threw at Fleur, along the lines of the many, many ways they took down Warner in 2010.
It’s Wagner, Louis.
Lol. Damned autocorrect!
I’d have to say it was a bad night for Fleur. Possibly she shaded the first round, but I think Ben won the second comfortably. She has one performance of Uptown Funk to turn the ship around, but will it be too late by then?
They can’t expect ‘Uptown Funk’ to work the same magic for her the 2nd time. The impact is never going to be the same. Her performance tonight already felt ‘deflating’ after all the tremendous Fleur hype during the week. You can’t reheat a baked potato….
I feel the producers are going to try until they burn the poor potato to a crisp.
I disagree completely.
We agree to disagree, then 🙂 I think the first performance worked because it was new, and unexpected. Now everyone’s waiting for Fleur to repeat that, and it CANNOT have the same impact. We’ve seen it already – it cannot wow to the same extent again. At best – it will be OK. At worst – it will be a letdown like tonight, after all the OTT hype we’ve been exposed to.
We all have another 5 votes.
I must say, free voting hasn’t worked out quite as many expected.
I think that free voting was brought in to give the illusion that the show is more popular than it actually is – last week there were 4 million votes cast, but as everyone has 5 each, that means less than a million people bothering to vote – way, way down on the show’s ‘glory days’. And if the votes weren’t free – how many of those would have actually picked up the phone and paid money to vote? Very low voting figures could seriously impact advertising revenue. Unfortunately for them, it has meant that as there are less and less contestants to vote for, anyone who likes an act at this late stage now potentially votes for them 5 times, really skewing the data… I think that could explain Ben’s huge lead (if the leaked figures prove to be true).
I thought just for one second that Fleur would be leaving tonight. I’ve been leaking little bits of sofabet thinking out during conversations with my brothers girlfriend whilst watching the last few weeks and she did me proud tonight – outrage at the extent to which fleur is being favoured and even commented on Andreas horrendous staging for ‘feeling good’.
Either way, fluers treatment was embarrassing tonght but tptb have 24 hrs to turn the ship around. Dishing out criticism at the final is always risky but I fully expect mel b’s comments about ‘man in the mirror’ last time to be revisited for ben. They’ve got almost everything they wanted this year and I’m now of the belief that they can get that last wish of fleur winning.
Fleur’s ridiculous treatment meant her staging looked more to me like Soviet-era propaganda. I’m surprised Fleur wasn’t pictured giving out bread to the needy peasants, whilst Ben, dressed as Uncle Sam, and Andrea, styled as a tricolor devil, were shown burning down the crops of the workers. Too much, Simon, too much.
We’ve still got tomorrow for that. Tptb have been so effective this year – I don’t know if they’re getting better or the public are getting stupider. The only reservation I have about them getting fleur on the win is why are they going to so much trouble? There must be a belief that she can do it but it’s so desperate now.
For anyone who likes “curses”:
Louis missed the first results show in 2009 – his act Kandy Rain were then eliminated.
Kelly missed the fourth results show in 2011 – both her acts Sophie and Misha were bottom two with Sophie leaving.
Mel missed tonight’s show – Andrea is eliminated.
Conclusion: If their own mentor can’t be bothered to support them, why should I?
I’d say that you may well have a point there. But with all of those examples, the acts were destined to do badly anyway. It’s a coincidence as much as anything I think. But I do agree with what you’re saying.
All those were quite likely to happen anyway though, but it’s a fair point.
Louis absence for the death of Stephen Gately meant he actually missed two singoffs, did an act of his leave in Week 2?
Firstly can the people who posted “Fleur is going home” make themselves known so I know their names 😉
Next don’t forget the producers know the results so far. They obviously want Fleur to win so if Ben is ahead they will currently be ordering extra red lights for Ben tomorrow along with food metaphors, a shit VT, rearranging the backing for Man in the Mirror and writing new putdowns for Dermot.
*If* tonight was bad for Fleur then they have plenty to turn it round
No doubt they’re also arranging for Ben to sit in a make-up chair next to himself!
Easy: man in the mirror.
“Hi is that Mel B’s kids? I know your mum is in hospital but could you possibly endorse Ben on tonight’s show”?
Yes even more so with a fresh set of free votes up for grabs.
Ps a commenter called Mark was guaranteeing fleur to go
To those gawping at Fleur’s pimping, I have to ask, have you watched the past 3 finals? This is par for the course for X Factor, and this is what they do for the winners, not the runner-ups. Fleur doesn’t get this treatment if she doesn’t have a chance of winning.
They also pushed Rebecca Ferguson, basically up until the final performance.
I think it’d take a minor miracle for Fleur to win, but I could see it happening, as long as Uptown Funk goes very well and MITM goes badly. We’ll see.
The only way they can get Fleur to win now is if they replace Ben’s voting symbol in the app with one for Bun And Cheese.
You think Rebecca Ferguson was pimped at all comparably to Little Mix, Sam Bailey, and Fleur tonight?
In the ending, they tried but they couldn’t justify it.
The Soviet staging for Fleur really has reinforced the ‘reductive Nicki Minaj’ image for me. Someone in the production team clearly liked the Only lyric video.
I personally don’t think Little Mix were pimped as much as Fleur was. They balanced out the good slots, and didn’t push as hard. And Sam Bailey’s treatment seemed less ridiculous, because she was truly the only decent act last year.
Also, did Dermot mention prior to the lines closing whether the votes would be carried over to Sunday? Every other year I’m sure he has done, but I didn’t hear it tonight.
I believe if Fleur was trailing by too much, then they may have reset the votes to give her a chance to beat Ben tomorrow. As it is, I think she must be close enough to catch him/ slightly ahead. (Or too far behind to bother- and Ben will get the winner’s treatment tomorrow!)
There is no way they would do that, it’d be too transparent. I still think Simon has a shred of dignity, he would see how that would backfire.
I think it’s quite damaging for the show if Fleur doesn’t win. Unless he has some great songwriting talent that he’s hitherto concealed Ben will disappear after his xmas single and hardly be heard of again. It will confirm the show as a light entertainment show rather than a a show that identifies and showcases relevant potential popstars. It’ll be the show to go on if you want a career in musical theatre. That can’t be what tptb want.
Having said that I think it’s all still open. Nobody stood out tonight but while we’re aware of the levels of manipulation, a lot of people won’t notice it so I don’t think it’s a negative for Fleur.
It’ll all depend on performances tomorrow imo.
I see Ben having a Top 10 song, surviving on Heart FM and having a Top 30 follow up before slowly fizzling out.
I think you’re being led down a path by the show. He isn’t a one dimensional rock singer, he’s just been painted that way to stop his vote growing. As I see it they won’t push him down a Cardle avenue, it’ll be more poppy. He’ll be fine.
I don’t see much for him. He’s very attractive, but I can’t see him as a musician of any kind, really. I’m probably in the minority but I also can’t see Fleur doing anything other than second-rate Tina Turner karaoke covers.
I’m still letting my inner child take the reigns and mourning the loss of Lauren/OtY.
*mourns*
I don’t think he’s got anything fresh or interesting or original or exciting to offer, and what he has got there are other people already doing, better.
Where will he fit? Who will want him? Who will write his songs? If you’ve got a porential hit why give it to Ben Haenow? He’s nice eniugh and he’s in tune but he’s nothing special. I don’t see it at all.
You could say exactly the same about Fleur, to be fair.
You’ll find 10 Fleur’s in each US high school. All with better voices. Simon’s deluded if he thinks Fleur will crack America long term.
Not the same at all. Fleur can easily be the centre of an all singing, all dancing lice act that will fill the O2. Fleur can do r&b and rap and do funk and edm andwill put on a uniquely Fleur, exciting performance with the right song. There’s a world of difference. Fleur is simply more marketable.
The difference comes down to this: Ben will have to write his own songs and Fleur won’t.
You’re quite possibly right about the talent in the US but Scowell can buy in the right songs and do the marketing. Britney Spears hardly sang on her live tours and she still sold venues out as well as doing huge numbers in cds and downloads.
So she’s going to end up as 2012-era Nicki Minaj. Or 2010-era Rihanna. Or 2006-era Beyoncé. I see nothing original in her. Ben could forge his own path, as dull and unremarkable as that may be – Fleur will have a few cheap, unsuccessful stabs at world domination before Simon sees the writing on the wall.
OtY will be laughing all the way from the Cbeebies presenting slot. The ultimate revenge, methinks.
Hmmmmm
“Jessica Hamby
December 13, 2014 at 11:50 pm
Not the same at all. Fleur can easily be the centre of an all singing, all dancing lice act that will fill the O2. ”
Not sure that would appeal to me … am sure “scratching” went out in the 1990s!
The lice act won 2 years ago.
I haven’t got a clue what they’re going to do with her. I don’t know what songs they might have or what plans they will make. She’s clearly more marketable as a pop act than Ben though.
They’re not going to invest meaningful money, time or energy in Ben after the xmas single. He’ll be dropped after the first album and only get that because a record deal is supposed to be the prize. It used to be a million pound record contract but they don’t mention that anymore.
They’ll need to at least keep a pretense of giving him a chance. If they do nothing for their winner, the entire format will fall apart.
The million quid included the money they would spend on marketing, advertising, production etc. I don’t believe most winning acts would have seen even a tenth of that.
Lots online being made about Fleur getting favoured treatment. There is no doubting she is the favoured winner. But Ben had the bigger star in duet. And if Fleur had the pimping during the audition stages that Ben had maybe she wouldn’t need so much now.
Ben flew a bit under the radar for me, I didn’t pay attention until JH. Missed a trick there.
As I said before, he’s been casually strolling along picking up votes left, right & centre – gathering more & more momentum as acts drop out. And because of the app, he’s been getting a lot of the free votes as people’s favoured acts leave. He’s a cookie-cutter X Factor winner: good-looking, humble, everyday bloke. He even has the “rocky edge” (in X Factor terms, anyway) to make him seem ‘credible’.
It doesn’t really matter which way the public vote. Simon’s already decided that no matter which way they vote that Fleur will be the winner and Ben will be the loser, and careers will be arranged accordingly.Might as well put it in subtitles at the bottom of the screen.
This for me is the main truth. Whatever happens tomorrow night the real winner of this show is Fleur as she will be the one Syco heavily invest in.
It is down to two, Stoney makes a good point Ed Sheeran is huge right now and very current. I doubt if votes will be zeroed no matter what as rules of voting could land ITV and the show under serious scrutiny.
Hard to call tonight, Andrea was put under all three busses that were out all week both times and then pimped Fleur to high heaven as usual to make sure at least ahead of Andrea.
Ben steady as day with some de-ramps but he got a good duet.
It is a toss of a coin I reckon at this stage, the two that have never been bottom so far are the last two left, regardless how they got them there that the fact.
The way both got there are highly polarised, one was pimped very very early and the other has been pimped all the way to last Saturdays home run.
Did Bens early pimping get him to where they cannot haul him back or does Fluer get up on the line. If it was horse racing TPTB would be getting a lengthy ban for the use of the whip but the owners wouldn’t be too bothered so long as the right one got up. I don’t think Simon will either.
One thing the favourite at the start of the race going to finish third. That why very very few poor bookies, A few great old fashioned gambles heading to the finish line here on Sofabet tomorrow, what a great place with great people.
Is it homerun two for Fleur tomorrow or marathon man Ben falls over the line. Nail biting stuff now and very hard to actually call again. I honestly thought Fleur and Stoney was home and dry after last Saturday, a technical problem for Ben tomorrow? LOL 😉 They will do anything to get Fleur over the line that for sure.
Nice to watch the show and write properly after a difficult week.
Great article on tonight show Daniel, hopefully not the last we will read about tonight on here, they really took it to a new level.
Will Simons first hug after the winner is announced tomorrow night be congratulating Fleur or consoling, either way I reckon Fleur gets first hug when winner called from Simon, any book available on that!
After time to reflect on the show without going through an emotional rollercoaster, I don’t think either Ben or Fleur had a game changer. I’d put them neck and neck – maybe Ben shading it.
It’s going to be a nailbiter – possibly the closest X Factor final of all time.
Been put DJing so not watched the show tonight. Will do tomorrow lunchtime.
Good news for me is that I topped up on Fleur during the odds crash on Saturday morning so I’m now in the money whatever happens.
(Would whoever scoffed at me backing Ben on the nose mid-November like gravy and chips with their humble pie?)
A Ben win remains more profitable for me personally, but again I wish Fleur backers the very best, especially Stoney who surely could cash out now and still have his Christmas shopping bill sorted.
And thanks to the team for superb analysis. First year betting and it’s been grand. I’ll be back for Eurovision of course after my own Stoney-like call of backing Austria on the nose at 25/1 hours before the second semi.
It was interesting that they used so many fight metaphors at the beginning of last night’s show, to the point that Fleur said she’d been training rather than rehearsing. Lots of pressure on Urban Funk tonight. I wonder if, confident that they’d lose Andrea, a lot of Fleur’s first song was about planting suggestions about how we should perceive tonight’s performance.
Andrea and Ella’s duet was weirdly adversarial in the way they were stood facing each other rather than the audience and mostly singing alternate lines “at” each other.
I’m at the point now that I don’t care who wins anymore. I’m a bit green if Ben does, very green if Fleur does but honestly I’m sick and tired of the whole circus.
“the Daily Star’s claim that Ben topped the semi-final vote?”
I think he topped it, but not by more than twice what Fleur had. Whatever lead he had in the semi I think he’s increased it now.
Ben’s not a good winner for them in any way. At least Fleur has charisma. If only she could sing.
if so could only sing lol .if it was a boxing match last night fleur would have been knock-out first.she was by far the worst singer on both songs.the first song was what the hell is going on here and what the hell is she saying. the 2nd song showed that she simply can not sing.just one song on week nine and ever-one started to jump on the bandwargon.i would say however fleur unlike ben needs to win this show to have a go she if she makes it.i wish her luck.
I would ask people on here to check iTunes from last night show to see who out of ben and fleur are doing best.
Of course Ben is doing better on iTunes. But tonight fleur performs her NUMBER 1 itunes hit. For the record I think bens got this now and will be laying a cover down after uptown funk which should see his odds slide a bit
At the moment I have a feeling ben is ahead by quite an amount and they will give up on trying to get fleur to win and give Ben winners treatment tonight
The odds this morning suggest to me it’s still very much all to play for
Her uptown funk we have seen before so it won’t be the same the second time her winners single will be OK but nothing exciting. I really can’t see her winning
stoney lay some of that bet off.
I backed marcuss against little mix and was like you all in let the bet ride.bens odds will shorten even more later on when people decide ben is miles the better singer.stoney I have done both for 1st 2nd yesterday. fleur will bring me more by beating ben but I can not see that happening.
Im gonna lay some off but I believe man in the mirror will underwhelm and uptown funk will bring his odds out a bit. The song is very popular now which will benefit her more as she basically launched it
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/x-factor/11291027/X-Factor-final-review-saturday.html
http://m.independent.ie/entertainment/television/review-x-factor-final-part-one-30834070.html
Just layed off a significant amount of potential fleur winnings. Was painful accepting 4/7 but can’t face leaving this final empty handed
wise man stoney.you can not ignore things like the star then ben topping iTunes chart last night.it tells us all who was liked most last night. stoney I ask you now if man city played west ham at home would you take 4/7 city beating west ham.
that’s what we have here someone who can sing and some who can dance but can not sing.
I never bet against my own team especially not in the form we are in plus we’ve already beat city this season lol
mark your point defeats itself. If you accept the Star leak then Ben trounced Fleur in last weeks vote despite her totally owning iTunes sales.
If you are saying that Ben beating Fleur on iTunes last night shows he won the public vote too then you must also be saying the Star leak is wrong.
Just to add substance to my point the records show iTunes sales in no way reflect the public vote.
EM will we know tonight who won vote last Saturday and how bar far later on
I’ll attempt to make points in defend of mark as he seems unable to himself.
Uptown Funk’s itunes performance can’t be split between people who loved Fleur and people who loved the song.There are loads of ‘fake’ versions of unreleased songs that charted highly on itunes, a version of Maroon 5’s Payphone went to #9 and a version of All about the bass went to #13 and they did that without a TV performance.
Looking at Fleur’s other song AIWFCIY, it didn’t chart nearly as well. (I think there were five Ben songs ahead of it)
EM ben has his supporters from the start .fleur got hers from week 9 when all jump on bandwagon.shes the best dancer he is the better singer
Mark that has nothing to do with it.
Which do you believe? The Star leak or iTunes sales? Or neither?
EM you I see you are a fleur supporter.as I have said fleur best dancer and ben better singer
I still think Fleur’s going to win it, but I know I’m pretty much a lone voice at this point.
I hope your right but I do think they papered over the cracks with her last night. That first song was a mess
I think it was a set up for her to smash it tonight.
Anyway, click on this link to cheer yourself up 🙂
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cvon38tFZt8&feature=youtube_gdata_player
I still think Fleur will win. I’m by no means sure but yeah, I’d put her at 60% or so to win. I think anyone who has this as a comfortable win for either side has got it wrong and is going to be proven wrong in the next 12 hours when the voting percentages come out.
Also, woo OTY! They should still be in!
I love that OTY number too. I hope they get a break. They make me smile. 🙂
I think Ben has had this won for a while now and the blatent pimping of Fleur is to paint her as a star and set her up for a decent career on Cowell’s label. I think we would have seen more negative treatment of Ben had it been close. Black suit, odd staging aside he has been given a decent crack at it with positive comments. He has been painted as a nice bloke, worthy winner. She has been painted more as a pop star.
Fleur’s first song last night was not really Xfactor final material. I don’t think it would have won her many extra votes. If they were trying to get her over the line I think they would have picked a different, more Saturday night TV friendly song. Seemed to me it was more a case of showcasing the artist she will be in the future.
Perhaps they were experimenting with Fleur’s first song last night to see how popular that sort of material would be for the ‘revamped’, more relevant X Factor that’s apparently coming next year? Or even for Simon’s new American show? If Ben really is that far ahead, it gives them room to experiment with Fleur’s stuff – perhaps they did that with Uptown Funk too?
What is strange for me is that they are not really deramping Ben, despite the high heaven pimping of Fleur. Ben had the best duet partner and his first performance got given praise. I know its the final, but they still find subtle ways to deramp cotnestants. MITM tonight mught be a perfect time for it?
For me I think Ben is leading, but Fleur still has some chance that is why they are giving the almighty Fleur push, to the extent it is quite embarrassing to watch for me, but at the same time not deramping Ben as he is still the likely winner.
Is it possible that TPTB were insuring that Fleur made the top 2? Was this the motivation?
They did that the moment Ella Henderson walked on stage for Andrea’s duet
It might mean though that Ben really does have this sown up. They did not appear to target Ben in a big way, more ramp Fleur so perhaps there was a fear that Fleur might have been in some danger of losing out for last 2. The Star leak may have been correct and perhaps they felt a danger that first time viewers might vote for the better singer.
And the moment they gave Andrea a song from big band week as his ‘new song’. Simon’s face looked very nervous though after the lines closed. I wonder if the vote was much closer than thought and Andrea nearly scraped through despite all the de-reamping?
Mark in case you missed my question I asked which you beleive iTunes = votes or Star leak = true.
You appear to be saying both in other comments but they are mutually exclusive now.
EM ben was proper last night on iTunes and report in star makes us think he has this in the bag, that to me makes grim reading for fleur.now are you a fleur fan come from the bandwagon from last Saturday are you like myself no botherd who wins.
I’ll pass mark thanks.
“now are you a Fleur fan come from the bandwagon” – you do know this is a betting analysis site, Mark? It is meant for dissecting the show in order to win money. It’s not a fansite. Objectivity wouldn’t go amiss.
Ahhhh… Ella Henderson singing “Give up the ghost” at Andrea. Hilarious.
The most eagerly anticipated event of tonight – for me it’s going to be the release of the voting statistics. We might then be able to make out what on earth has been going on.
I’m still on a Ben win – not with any great enthusiasm for Ben – it’s just he seemed the most likely winner. At least Ben / Fleur final two brought up the top 2 combo which ensures that I’ll be up whatever happens.
Will they include what the percentages were when the vote froze last night out of interest? Or do they just give overall percentages for final week?
They should give last night’s percentages, they did last year – can’t find them on the official site but they’re here: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s103/the-x-factor/news/a537638/x-factor-2013-voting-stats-in-full-sam-nicholas-dominated-public-vote.html#~oYqseBIV5kwQiG
The voting stats is always the highlight of the series for me too, really looking forward to seeing them – this year could be particularly interesting.
They will reveal the voting figures on the xtra factor tonight
Thanks guys – I have never seen them before in previous years and I am definitely looking forward to seeing them tonight 🙂
Just rewatched Fleur’s performance. It was a bit of a mess but Ben was pretty drab so didn’t take advantage.
I think it’s all still up for grabs..
That’s why I decided to cover myself. Fleur is gonna need a big vote swing to turn this around. Of course she’ll make up ground with uptown funk but looking at the winners single that will likely be Bens chance to shine
Interesting that they’re both singing the same song. I think the comments will tell us how it’s going. If Fleur is in with a chance they’ll go OTT with the comments and talk her up over Ben. If they read the runes and it looks impossible for Flear to win I think they’ll lay off a bit and even things up with the comments – no point talking down Ben if he’s going to win anyway.
Does anyone know whether it’s confirmed that votes will be carried over from Saturday to Sunday this year?
I guess the fact they called it a vote freeze last night basically confirms this
True, good point.
Third placed contestants Sat>Sun dropoff
2013: 29.7% > 10.3%
2012: 16.8% > 7.4%
2011: 26.5% > 8.9%
So if Fleur isn’t too far behind she has a chance to make up ground with Uptown Funk. All depends on if Ben is too far ahead though.