Well, that put the cat amongst the pigeons. A “leak” in today’s Daily Star claiming that Ben took last week’s semi-final with 50% of the vote, ahead of Fleur on 22% and Andrea on 16%, saw a flip-flop at the top of the outright market.
Reaction in our comments section was equally febrile. Opinion was polarised, and it’s fair to say that Ben’s supporters were more willing to believe the story than Fleur’s backers. This is perfectly understandable on both sides – confirmation bias is strong at this stage of proceedings and your credulity will be based on how much you’re willing to believe such an outcome in the semi-final phone vote.
Full disclosure: at the time of writing, I have a reasonable green on Ben (for the uninitiated that means I make a profit in the event of him winning), a tiny green on Fleur, and a big red on Andrea taking the crown. I’ve generally been open minded on how to weigh my respective Ben/Fleur profits this weekend.
What’s the context to help us decide if we can trust the “leak”?
In recent years, the Daily Star’s record on X Factor leaks has been excellent, stretching back to the claim that Eoghan Quigg had topped the 2008 vote for the first five weeks. The following year, a leak in the paper suggested Rachel Adedeji topped the week 3 vote – something which stretched credulity after her two bottom two appearances in a row, but proved to be correct.
In 2011 they revealed that Kitty had been just off the bottom two after her pimp slot ‘It’s Oh So Quiet’. And that Janet was winning early votes, with The Risk, Johnny and Marcus second to her in weeks 2, 3 and 5. All were correct. In 2012 the Star told us Christopher Maloney had won weeks 1-7, with Jahmene his closest pursuer and Ella polling close to the bottom two. They were right again.
We only had one tidbit last year: that Nick McDonald won the Week 2 phone vote, which proved accurate once figures were released after the final. There were leaks last year that were inaccurate, but these were from The Sun, who on the morning of the week 6 Saturday show, exaggerated the extent of Sam Bailey’s lead, suggesting it was unprecedented and unsurpassable (she was beaten that week by Nicholas).
The Daily Star leaks have a pattern of only coming to light about those acts topping the vote that producers wish to bring down. What is unprecedented is having one come to light only on the day of the final. If Ben won the semi by that huge margin, it figures that he has won other weekly phone votes. So why wait till now to publicise a huge lead? It’s late in the game if the figures are accurate and the “insider source” is trying to instil a sense of complacency – surely one leak in the Star wouldn’t induce enough complacency to overturn that kind of lead in the space of a week.
Which leaves us with the possibility that the figures are inaccurate. It is always possible that producers will call our bluff at some point by feeding duff information to the Star, or that the Star might develop an agenda of its own. We expressed this concern about the Maloney leak in 2012, but our scepticism proved misplaced on that occasion.
So do we place our trust in the Star again? All the talk last week was of Fleur’s ‘Uptown Funk’, but we thought it was also another largely positive week for Ben (not everyone agrees). As discussed in our retrospective of Ben’s journey, the show followed its previous treatment of qualified positivity, and there was plenty in a highly effective second VT which suggested the show building a feelgood narrative about Ben as a potential winner: we got to emotionally invest in the future of his family, portrayed as relying on his success (cue Ben crying); and he was the only one shown visiting the Together for Short Lives disabled children’s charity which will benefit from sales of the winner’s single (cue Ben crying). He continued with the tears after his pimp slot rendition of ‘Hallelujah’.
Against that, a 50% slice of the vote at the final four stage would be unprecedented since tallies were released in 2008. Given the hype around Fleur’s second performance and it hurtling to the top of the iTunes chart, it’s a bold though not impossible call to be willing to accept the Star leak; if you don’t accept it, you’re crediting insiders with a bluff or suggesting it’s specious journalism. You pays your money… We won’t know for sure until after Sunday’s climax, when the week-by-week public vote details are released.
Punters traditionally wait for the YouGov poll, published by The Sun on the eve of the final, as the only X Factor poll conducted by a professional polling organisation. But while the Sun had a poll this morning, it seemed to be the Sun’s own work rather than YouGov’s. It put Fleur ahead on 38%, with Ben on 24% and Andrea 15%. The article explained these results were in response to the question “who do you think will be crowned champion” rather than who do you want to win, which isn’t ideal at all for predicting how the votes will go.
In Fleur’s favour, we can be confident producers will continue to promote her heavily after the success of last week’s ‘Uptown Funk’, which she will reprise this weekend against Ben’s more low-key if solid ‘Man In The Mirror’. It will be interesting to see if producers are more careful after the Fleur bus dominated the end of Sunday’s show (see our retrospective on Fleur’s journey) in a way which even ordinary viewers noted as indicating favouritism.
The new song she will showcase tonight is the rap-heavy ‘Can’t Hold Us’ by Macklemore & Lewis. This is not your typical X Factor final song but then neither is Ben’s ‘Demons’, and both songs should suit their respective styles. It’s also worth bearing in mind this time last week we were questioning the wisdom of ‘Uptown Funk’.
I haven’t mentioned our favourite Italian yet. Andrea’s new song is ‘Something Good’ by Nina Simone, ‘Earth Song’ is his planned reprise and he’s the odd one out in the winner’s song choices, hoping to revert to bootcamp triumph ‘I Didn’t Know My Own Strength’, as opposed to NewRepublic’s ‘Something I Need’ for the other two.
This feels like a clue that producers are hoping to end Andrea’s journey tonight. The ambiguous coverage has continued – in The Sun today, a “Boring Andrea” headline for an article in which Simon suggests the Italian is too predictable. I’ve seen enough obvious deramping throughout the series to think that producers will try to finish the job tonight, leaving a more suspenseful final two without a singoff appearance between them.
I’ll be looking for eating references related to Andrea tonight (a theme we explored in our retrospective on Andrea’s journey), and the kind of off-putting staging in the first song that did Nicholas McDonald, Jahmene Douglas, Amelia Lily and Marcus Collins few favours in recent finals. Ben may end up with something similar. That will be one of the early signals; obviously we’ll get running order too – I’d be surprised if Ben appears after Fleur. Do bear in mind that producers have occasionally been willing to put the eventual Saturday departee on last, such as Amelia Lily and Luke Friend, so that the Sunday pimp slot reverts to The Chosen One. Don’t be too surprised to see Andrea there, though Fleur is surely odds-on favourite in this respect.
Otherwise, I’ll be looking out for something more nebulous in the tone of the show – and judges’ comments in particular – about Ben and Fleur. It will be a positive for Ben if the narrative of someone deserving and looking to help others continues, because it suggests creating a feelgood winner in the short-term even if his commerical potential is more limited. Ben backers will be hoping that Fleur’s narrative is about her post-show commerical potential, at the expense of talking about her chances of winning this.
Conversely, positive signals for Fleur backers will be the kind of table-thumping “We can do this!” employed by Tulisa in favour of Little Mix in 2011. That would suggest it’s possible. Any attempt to qualify Ben’s performances, as Mel and occasionally Cheryl have done during the earlier live shows, would also give hope to Fleur fans.
I will be weighing up my Ben and Fleur positions during the show based on these kinds of signals. Before the show, our final 1-2-3 prediction has to address what we think of the Daily Star leak. At the risk of being bluffed – which certainly cannot be discounted – there is a strong record of past results showing their spoilers to be accurate, and that is reflected in the Sofabet prediction:
1. Ben 2. Fleur 3. Andrea
Do let us know your continuing thoughts below. We know things are reaching a head, but we’d appreciate it if the debate is as constructive as possible.
Ben has all the hallmarks of a classic male X Factor winner, I think – ‘humble’ background, a slightly rocky/alternative style, etc etc. He’ll have sucked up the votes from all the other males who’ve left.
I think Fleur will definitely come second (to her benefit long-term, though that’s another conversation), though ‘Can’t Hold Us’ is a really euphoric, rousing, exciting tune which will definitely motivate her voters.
*copies and pastes for the exposure*
I still believe Ben will win.
-MITM, for me personally as well as people I know, is considered one of his better moments, and would be far more suitable in a final performance than Fleur’s song, in my opinion.
-At this point people are going to be voting for people who can sing well, which I doubt Fleur will benefit from – Ben is decent enough to get a vote for that.
-Fleur has a big bandwagon around her, I doubt she has the same hardcore fanbase such as Ben to give her all five votes.
-People probably think Fleur is a guaranteed winner (some on here clearly do), that will work against her.
-I’ve seen lot’s of people say it’s a fix and that she comes across badly – yet again, works against her.
-Fleur has played her entire hand, whereas Ben could pull out a proposal.
-Tears from Fleur are less likely to provoke votes than Ben, and to a larger extent Andrea.
-Fleur’s song choices read more as ‘setting up for a career’ than ‘gain votes for the win’.
I’m worried some of y’all are putting personal feeling before anything else. I don’t like any of these acts – I may prefer Fleur a bit – but I find her winning to be unlikely. Don’t say you weren’t warned is all I can say.
Remember y’all, these are all talented people in their own way, don’t be unnecessarily scathing towards them.
😀
People certainly don’t think fleur has won this. She goes into this final as 2nd favourite. Im hoping this was tptb’s intention
38% of people in a poll by The Sun suggests otherwise. These much-taunted, likely-unrepresentative online polls can’t be helping.
As I said earlier fleur polled 58% on digital spy poll of 38000 people. The most popular tele related website around. I take hope from this poll
I think it is a fair assumption to presume that DS rather skewed towards Fleur’s fans, they tend to support those types of acts. I also think that these are the type of (overly?) invested multi-voting fans who have been neutralised by the free voting.
That said, that is a large number, and should not be disregarded. I have no doubt Fleur is popular, I just feel as though it is unrepresentative. The other unknown is that I think Andrea’s votes will largely transfer to Fleur, which may well push her over the edge.
Ultimately, I think this is one of the closest finals. I believe the vote is very volatile – as much as I think Ben is quite a bit ahead as shown by that voting leak, they wouldn’t publicise it unless there was a chance of Fleur winning.
Great article – I was waiting to see which way you went. Had the Star leak been 40% for Ben not 50% I’d have believed it but it’s just too high, too late for me. Seems like a lazy attempt to make Ben’s voters complacent more than anything else, totally in keeping with the efforts to push Fleur.
This morning I was like you (but about 0.1% of the stake) in being very green on Ben, OK on Fleur and deep red on Andrea. I’ve just made Fleur slightly more green – hard to see her lengthening during the show and I really don’t know which way it will go. Running order (still the most powerful tool of all) judges comments and distractions in the staging will be crucial.
Daniel & Andrew,
This being my first year betting on X Factor, I’d like to thank you for an excellent coverage! It has easily fulfilled the high expectations I’ve come to have on your material after having followed your Eurovision reporting from the start. Already looking forward to next year 🙂
I’m wondering could the duets possibly be thw artists in their new songs?
Unless Andrea performed with a hologram of Nina Simone, I doubt it!
I’m very sure that this Daily Star leak is a fake – I think we have to use our common sense here. As I said before, 50% in the final 4 is unprecedented and what about the show last week would lead to Ben getting such an unprecedented vote?
However, that doesn’t mean that I don’t think Ben can win. This fake leak probably happened because Ben either won the vote last week, or lost by a small margin. However, the true picture is that the winner’s votes last week were probably around 35%, rather than 50%
It goes without saying that if I’m wrong and the leak is actually true, then it really is over. If Fleur’s best week by a mile still leaves her with a 28% deficit to Ben, then she has no chance…but come on, even typing that it’s just ludicrous. It’s not true!
I don’t believe it at all. The timing is the thing that convinces me it’s untrue. If it’s true ill take it on the chin and learn a lesson. And still wont cover my strictly come dancing bet in next weeks final lol
Someone on Ds is claiming duets are
Fleur -Bruno mars
Ben – Adam lambert
Andrea- Sam Smith
Interesting
Another duet rumour:
http://goo.gl/gT3YQa
Andrea and Ben HAVE to be the wrong way round in this case. I refuse to think even Simon can be that stupid.
Bens odds are drifting
Looking at Oddschecker, I see a straight row of shortening odds, unless I’m missing something (I may well be, I’ve never placed a bet in my life and my entire understanding of the concept may be wrong!).
Trust me the blue and red colours are deceiving on this. I took 13/8 on Fleur a few hours ago. Ben is not far off evens with a few bookies. I have been glued to the odds all day
Fleur has just gone into11/10 with sj the firm I backed herat 13/8 yet she still remains red
Doing the simplest of Maths on some odds is telling me the same thing. Oddschecker’s website needs to get their **** together, that much is certain.
Fleur’s definitely beginning to close in on Ben now. I expect she’ll be favourite again by the end of the evening.
A fun irrelevant fact that everyone probably knows that I only just realised – when inevitably Fleur or Ben win the X Factor tomorrow night, it will be the first time the winner’s mentor has been male since Series 3 (Simon Cowell with Leona Lewis).
Dannii Minogue (twice), Cheryl Cole (twice), Tulisa, Nicole Scherzinger and Sharon Osborne have all won in that time.
My gut feeling is that the 50% figure is not correct and the leak is therefore a fake. If you strip out the effect of the leak it means Fleur should be favourite now and therefore any evens or better about her is a little bit of value.
Based purely on duet rumours I’ve rolled the dice on Andrea finishing 2nd for my final wager of the season.
Good luck to everyone! Enjoy the show.
looks like are three guests are from uk: https://twitter.com/jamesinrehab/status/543846108938928128
Sam Smith
Ed Sheehan
Jessie J (?)
He also tweeted earlier that the duets are not with A list performers but the songs are interesting (sounds bad!) – is he reliable?
Has anyone considered that fleurs breakout performance was late in the show on Saturday. If you were watching and voted after the first round of songs then yes Ben won last week. Perhaps people are trigger happy during the show and by the time uptown funk came on people had spunked their 5 free votes?
How could they keep the duets so secret I wonder, they needed to rehearse I guess !?
An interesting day!
On reflection through the day.. I’m not having this Ben 50% either. Goes against all other measures. I think Fleur smashed the voting last week. Looking forward to finding out!
Interesting news, I left my position alone all day.Ben and Lauren were my greens from the get go and I covered Fleur last weekend for a win but no where near a Ben win. Andrea is complete red at the minute and see no reason to change that pre-show so virtually the same result sequence as Daniel.
A nail biting finish in store for a few here on Sofabet.
Settling down to watch the show after strange week, Thanks to many for kind messages and good luck to all.
Apps votes by Jay above is a good point. App votes been the unknown all season.
App votes could also explain how Ben got such a lead compared to other years. If Matt Cardle picked up one vote from floating voters where Ben picked up five, such a massive lead quickly more obtainable.
So many rumours about duets going around that seem to rule out Bruno and Adam.
Given they are keeping them secret it suggests not the biggest stars – former winners?
Ben and Olly, Fleur and Little Mix, Andrea and Sam.
Just a thought
Scratch Olly he didn’t win!
Duh
50% is too convenient a figure. Everyone knows the great British public do not understand percentages. That’s why, for example, the BBC news report “three out of ten” rather than 30%, because the latter would not be comprehended by the majority of people.
If they’d reported Ben had 42% of the vote most people would either not understand or assume he was not in the lead!
A slightly cynical view you might think but 50%? Why not 48% or 52%?
The market is now fully reflecting the fact people are wising up to the fact this story is unlikely to be true
Out of interest, have the Daily Star every leaked voting percentages before? And if so, have they ever done it correctly?
Good luck everyone 🙂
Cutis yes the star has been right all the time
I think you may have misunderstood my question – I’m asking specifically whether they have correctly leaked the exact voting percentage before like 50% for Ben, 22% for Fleur etc.
As far as I’m aware they haven’t, but I’m prepared to be proven wrong.
Ben up first then. Shock horror
Ben
Andrea
Fleur
as order for round one then?
Ten minutes in and there’s no doubt who they want to win but…. Can they?
Fleur moves back into favorite. Craziest market today
Haha. They’ve whittled them down to three… and here’s Take That! Nicely done 🙂
Fleur in pimp slot shocker, with Ben sizing up the coffin.
If Ben really got 50% last week no way would they be pushing so blatantly for a Fleur victory. They’d have given up.
Correct. Fleur will be odds on everywhere by close of round one.
Fleur performing to Gary while Ben got the ‘other one’… bit of a hint there on who’s seen as number one?
Fleur marginal fav now – just for standing next to Borelow!
Rewarded for my earlier bravery/stupidity
Ben is looking distinctly disgruntled, shaking his head a lot. One might almost think he’s expressing disappointment at bias.
But that can’t be. This show isn’t biased.
Is it?
DUETS according to James Ingram:
JAMES INGHAM @JAMESINREHAB 2m2 minutes ago
#XFACTOR EXCL: Duets = Andrea & Ella Henderson – Ghost
Fleur & Labrinth – Beneath Your Beautiful, Ben & Ed Sheeran – Thinking Out Loud
Howard is less famous than Jason, and Jason’s left the band. Most hehsome.
Ben’s VT so far: Vote Fleur East.
Vote Fleur East in Bens VT lol couldn’t make it up
First ever walking stick de-ramp – classic
Ben trapped in a box – not a great start for him staging wise.
It was like a game of Where’s Wally with some of those camera shots. Lots of gold though.
Positive comments for Ben
Lukewarm – you’re nice, well done. No you’re amazing, no brilliant performance
Tulisa to Ben – “You’ve reached your full potential”…
The VT may have been unfavourable but I think the performance as a whole worked well for Ben. Good start for him.
I loved ben’s vt interview – talking to ‘ben’s mate’ and then ‘ben’s other mate’ – please somebody have screen grabbed that caption?!
Do we know for a fact he has more than two mates?
🙁 They cut out the bit where I was on-screen with the caption “Ben’s biological mate”
Dressed in black and singing in the dark. He deserves to be on the stage. He’s a professional and Cheryl wishes him luck. He’s still down to earth. He’s like umm a great guy.
Tulisa looks like a fish.
Ben can smash my box anyday
Everything about that suggests they want someone else to win, but if you win it will do 🙂 must be close enough
Vote Fleur East – in Ben’s VT. The bus strikes again.be
Ben feels like hes won already…
Annoying that fleur is all red on oddschecker despite shortening across the board rapidly
i think goes on odds at start of day so has drifted overall
Hold on… is Andrea Italian?
No break after Ben either straight to Andrea
He just looked so small time. Sausages and the pub. It was like he belongs in a village hall, not Wembley.
Death by a thousand cuts for Ben. Who could have predicted that?
Anyone know the Italian for end of journey?
They did some job on Andrea there, the flags inside the bus hilarious and they made Ben look more like a singing David Blaine that Ben, Fleur in gold dress from get go. mad stuff..
Food in Andrea’s VT. 😀
Full house on Andrea bingo. Restaurants, eating on the bus, Italian subtitles, pugs, being called an Italian bear, sister(?) asked him to come home for Christmas. AND the cake of incipient surfeit!
Above everything else Andrea vocally is brill
He’s so good. No wonder they’ve had to consistently knock him down each week.
Nice compliments from Tulisa but hardly banging the table!
She also said ‘diva’ and asked people to revisit his first audition than vote for him.
How inspired is that – a Domino’s pizza ad right after Andrea sings. Tptb in fine form tonight
Aldo basically said Andrea has the support of all the Italian food in the UK – genius, well done X factor
Woah at Andrea’s VT and performance – red and blacked, italian dialogue throughout his VT, “bear”, “diva”, lots of food… The producers definitely read sofabet!
It was like it was scripted on here!
“Get ready. This is the big one. It’s Fleur East.”
Subtle, Simon. Subtle.
Camera angles doing it for Fleur there on the homecoming reaction as Ben’s looked much larger I thiught
Not sure about this really. Everything seems a mess, too much rapping not vote friendly and the lighting makes it hard to see Fleur
4 judge standing ovation obviously though
This is a bit of a mess production wise for Fleur & the “champions’ flags are none too subtle.
Very big production. But hardly any singing in the song. After all the hype, it falls a bit flat.
True, And her rap just sounded like a series of noises.
Fleur red and blacked, and not her best performance. Like last week, they’re teeing her up for to knock Uptown Funk out of the park again.
I thought Andrea got a red and blacking at the start of his song. Didn’t feel the same with Fleur.
And those annoying bongos from her supporter are very off-putting.
ONLY THE YOUNG!!
Thank you for making me laugh & thus spitting my food out….
Well fleur sadly the worst then
Shame shes favourite 🙂
Also Louis saying people need to vote to see you here tomorrow you deserve this final. Not saying about winning and begging for votes just for tonight?
He did the same with Ben. He said vote to get through to tomorrow but nothing about winning.
General consensus from everyone in my house is …. What on earth was that all about!?
Ben sings in a box in the dark. Fleur comes in on a motorbike surrounded by banners that say champions.
I’m not going to bother commenting on anything else except that I couldn’t hear a word of her rap.
This has a weird feeling to it. I wonder if it could backfire.
Video wall display with flags bearing the word champions on them. Hardly subliminal.
so… in the crowd interviews with Sarah-Jayne…
Ben gets the woman who works in his local pub…
Andrea gets a well known Italian tv chef…
Fleur gets the mayor of her hometown, her granddad and a member of JLS… hmmmm, subtle much TPTB!?
An underwhelming round all round. Id say Andrea picks up most of the first timers in that round
Classic mistep by the show there. A Ms Dynamic-esque slice of staging followed by utterly supportive comments.
VT felt a bit small time too.
Pick the bones out of that one
As they know Fleur pretty much can’t win, I reckon the idea is to use this weekend to launch her as a big star (and try and make X Factor relevant and contemporary), with closing the gap between her and Ben a secondary goal that aligns with this. Hence the huge, edgy production on song 1 and presumably tomorrow on Uptown Funk, and the across-the-board choice of contemporary but less-known songs. If she’s gonna come second regardless, there’s no point saddling her with safer material when they can use tonight and tomorrow to establish her brand really strongly – especially as they have the technical possibilities to create true spectacle at their disposal this weekend anyway.
This is the new benchmark for obvious, blatant favouritism. I’m finding it pretty nauseating if I’m being honest but I can’t help thinking that there’s a lot of ground to make up on Ben if they’re pushing it this hard.
Seconded.
They pimped Little Mix similarly 3 years ago, and they didn’t have any ground to make up. They just like to make sure they get their winner.
They are FAR too desperate with the Fleur pimping here. It’s OTT, even by their standards. Ben for an ‘upset’ win….
The app voting getting down played tonight in a very clever way. Did they try too hard with Fleur. If that was Eurovision how many votes would it get? They still seem to be pimping to the very last inch.. But the two before were well bussed. It is hilarious to watch and Tulisa saying I have been campaigning you from the very start must have Mel B breaking the telly if watching.
Unrelated but Ben’s Italian grandmother hasn’t popped up yet either, has she?
Nonna was in his first VT – with subtitles.
Meghann Trainor getting voted off tonight she’s struggling moving and singing. Fleur get on and show her how it’s done
so very true
While you say that the performance was a struggle. Everything else said Fleur to win but the rap wasn’t clear, the staging was very distracting, she obviously had help with the singing parts – the backing almost dominated her.
It was very odd. But then my mother, who I haven’t let in to the manipulation side of the show, says Fleur has to win so maybe it’s wasn’t as bad as I thought.
I just finished Andrea but my friends all thought Fleur was terrible. Let’s watch.
I liked the contrast between Fleur’s party bus and Ben’s empty bus. ‘Habibus’ – in honour of my all time favourite empty pub VT.
Christ this duet is dull and a bit weird.
That was a stunning duet I thought
Grill duet
I thought that was a great duet for Ben. Their voices went well together, and it was very feel-good, and ‘you got me back to No. 1’, and etc. etc.
Dermot: shut up Ed only one person round here creates number one records and that’s Fleur ok?
As soon aas Ben called Ed the most incredible man in the world it was going to be weird. I bet Ed was thinking “what the f***?”.
Actually if Fleur’s rumoured duet is true it could be a moment for her – stripped back, vocal needed, completely different from her first and third songs. And, unlike Ben and Andrea she won’t be fighting the ‘star’, she’ll be complimenting him.
Ella Henderson finally gets to the X Factor final, 2 years late.
Andrea gets Ella a bit underwhelming after rumours after Sam Smith
The song would suit him though
Their voices don’t work well together at all. Yuck.
Ella singing Andrea off the stage there….
Thought that was pretty good myself. If Ben was ahead before tonight Fleur will need to bring it big with her duet.
Come on Fleur this is the moment
If she messes this duet up then Ben’s won in my opinion.
I wish Dermot had asked Ella what it was like to sing in an X Factor final 😉 We also didn’t get Fleur’s first performance at all. If the Star are right, Fleur could be in danger of third place. Ben’s been solid and safe so far, Andrea quirky and charming, playing his strengths.
Friend just said “Watch as Ed’s simple charm outshines Ben. It’s like matching plastic with oak.” I agree.
I don’t think this Ghost song gives Andrea the chance to really impress. He should have done it in drag as Fella Benderson.
Fella Benderson?
HEH!!!
For the first time… I think ever… the ‘star’ sings before the contestant. And the ‘star’ introduces Fleur.
I’m almost in tears laughing at the bias now. Subtlety? What’s subtlety?
Haha, it’s Fleur who gets the celebrity introduction. That’s slightly weird.
You notice how it was the already established act introducing Fleur not vice versa
Wow
Subtle how Ben and Andrea introduce their star performer, but Fleur is introduced by hers.
Not to mention singing the only song of the three originally performed as a duet.
Bit pathetic now this bias for Fleur – being introduced by the guest star as if she’s the real star.
Agreed. I don’t vote in these shows, but if I did, I’d be voting for anyone but Fleur out of sheer irritation…
“Fleur is in the building…” Oh ffs….
Labrinth out shining Fleur too much couldn’t hear her at times
Best duet by a mile
Sorry stoney man I’m completely neutral with this the best duet by a mile was Ben’s
Wow Ben by a mile.we out of tune fleur
Think they are taking it too far now having the guest star introduce her
And Labrinthe contacted Cowell to ask to sing with Fleur. Priceles.
This would have been more of a moment if Fleur was a better vocalist. Instead it was just pleasant, but nothing special.
Ben won the duets. Fleur might have some catching up to do tomorrow.
I actually thought that was slightly underwhelming. Not my fave song though.
Starting with Labrinyth and then bringingbon Fleur made her the star…..still think Ben could it
David Bowie’s changed.
Hmmm – and no mention of Mel’s absence or ‘illness’ in Andrea’s VTs yet. Is anyone giving odds on Mel being fired vs having quit in disgust ? And what’s the betting we will never find out the exact nature of this illness ?
On the one hand it must be quite handy to see the producers’ intentions so nakedly obvious, but just to watch it, it’s actually rather disgusting. I have no vested interest in any of the acts and doubt I will ever buy any of their music, but it angers me that they do not have a level playing field, to the point where I would literally piss myself laughing if Fleur got voted off tonight… Yes, I know, not going to happen.
Not even a tweet of support for Andrea. She can’t be that ill.
She pulled out last night, she’s been part of the machine for a while in various counties so not sure she’s walked.
The VTs would have been filmed before her pull out. I’d bet Ella Henderson got a call this morning as the VT seemed set up for a Mel duet until Ella strangely called.
This is why I’m not totally convinced she’s walked. She’s been on the panels of America’s Got Talent and X Factor Australia so she must know the deal. I know Cowell isn’t heavily involved with the content of XF Oz, but surely they have a copy of The Manual?
I really want her to, she’s my favourite but I hate what the show has done in regards to her. Dehumanising your chosen one is not a cute look, Simon.
All we are missing tonight is Dermot with a vote Fleur East sign on his head
I cancelled a wisdom tooth extraction to sing with Fleur. That’s how amazing she is.
Though the show has plenty of time to extract the p***.
They’re FILLING a lot of space this weekend with guest acts before they cross the BRIDGE and CROWN Ben the winner etc etc DENTAL PUNS
(Lisa needs braces)
Ben’s creeping up to Fleur on the DS ‘Who do you want to win?’ poll. Pre-show she was on 57%; I think Ben was on 26%. Now Fleur’s on 42.92% and Ben’s on 36.07%.
I haven’t watched the last few weeks, I was busy…
I used to like Fleur. But tonight’s obvious favoritism towards her is making me nauseous.
Wonder how other first time or almost first time viewers and voters perceived this.
Fleur drifts back out in the odds again and rightly so in my view. Tonight didn’t go to plan for her in my eyes.
Fleur has got to go tonight she by the worst tonight
Hope you laid off when you got a second chance Stoney. This competition is ben’s…
Still pimping fleur after the lines close. Shes through
Or they’re building up to a ‘shock’ result.
Though if it’s Andrea v Ben the grand final is surely over considering Andrea’s already been in the bottom two twice.
I think Fleur will be eliminated tonight. It wasn’t her night. Andrea was the stronger vocalist and Ben gets the “he’s fit” vote.
Lou lou fleur fleur has smoking something
“Louis, you’re always independent.”
Best gagof the night.
Smart to make sure lines were closed before Ed performed, because that was always bound to motivate Ben votes.
Run the logic in that past me Curtis
Ben and Ed Sheeran just did a duet that went down quite well. Seeing Ed perform again will have reminded people of that (and reminded them to vote for Ben)
Shout “FLEUR” one more time, Louis. One more time. 3 times wasn’t enough. Not EVERYONE watching is 100% annoyed yet…
You could see Cheryl’s cue was meant to be supportive of Fleur but she almost felt embarrassed of it and just said almost nothing
That’s why Louis won’t be sacked – he has no shame whatsoever at following a script.
Massive test of the Fleur support right now. Bad night for her. That first song choice was awful
She didn’t really help.
Please say you covered for a Ben win.
Nope 🙁
The red and black/messy staging didn’t help either, nor did the backing vocals drowning her out. Or the rap being barely heard. All of those things were surely picked out in rehearsals?
My GOD Ed Sheeran could bore for Britain.
You read my mind – I just tweeted that he’s the most boring singer that’s ever lived.
Ed Sheeran… great singer songwriter… not so great anecdote teller…
Tuna Baguette will be in the Groups category next year.
All the way to judges panel and Louis, Not getting involved in elim market, allot of new viewers tonight but TPTB intentions were never more obvious and OTT. Maybe they pulled the voting when they had what they wanted though.
Fleur saved first… again.
Simon doesn’t look at all happy. Fleur is going home.
Ok I’ve eaten my words less than a minute later.
Called Fleur first too for the umpteenth time this series. Ben through obvious now sureky
They did the same last year, called Nicholas through first instead of Sam which totally killed any suspense about who was leaving. Don’t really understand the reasoning for it.
Really feel sorry for Andrea.
Phew, she gets through to tomorrow night. I won’t pretend I wasn’t a tad nervous.
So no surprises for night one. But I think the Powers That Be may have mucked up for the overall win (in terms of what they want).
As predicted. Hence the louis pimp. Bring on the uptown funk
An expected final 2. Ben’s got this though, I think. The incredibly OTT pimping of Fleur tonight – some people somewhere are worried…
I’m happy for Andrea though to have made the final, such a damn nice guy
The question is, in the final, what percentage of the votes usually happen on the second night? Because Fleur’s going to need a few tomorrow I think. She’ll get them with Uptown Funk too, but will it be enough?
Advantage Ben.
dont they normally reset the voting? Or have i got that wrong? If they have not reset it when they usually do then that would suggest that Fleur is leading?
Voting is never reset. I doubt ben is pulling away too much. I reckon all 3 were close
So they dispatch Andrea get their girl to 2nd, using all the tricks well documented here. Andrea was so strong they had to start early in the series with the de-ramping, and he was so nice they had to be especially subtle. They wouldn’t have got people to dislike him so just turn him into a glutinous joke.
But what strikes me is that it’s all this manipulation without having established a decent goal. Fleur has too weak a voice and Ben is Brookstein Mk V. I think they’d have been better off with Andrea winning, or Lauren, or even OTY. They’re a bit like a dying communist state with all the sinister machinery turning away but to no purpose.
* “gluttonous”. Damn spell-checker.
I think you just made that whole lot up. Nonsense
LOL apologies for my rude prodding yesterday. I was just trying to get to the bottom of that poll. (I blame the shortcomings of non-face to face communication.)
That’s how Paul Akister lost the weight, the regime purged him last year and he was in a gulag outside Braintree for 12 months before being rehabilitated.