The X Factor 2010

[Perdita]

ELTON John has made a dramatic U-turn - agreeing to let all the X Factor wannabes sing his songs on next Saturday's show.
The superstar's tunes will be the surprising theme of next weekend's live episode, considering his recent outburst about the reality show.

Just a few weeks ago he branded it as "boring and a***-paralysingly brain crippling".

Talking about the programme last month, Sir Elton, 63, said: "TV vaults you to superstardom and then you have to back it up.

"Leona Lewis and Alexandra Burke are at the mercy of the next song they can get. It's important they write their own songs, so they're not at the mercy of anyone. Songwriters today are pretty awful, which is why everything sounds the same. Contemporary pop isn't very inspiring."

His rant led Simon Cowell to vow to send him a tape of one of Rebecca Ferguson's impressive performances - saying he should eat his words for saying the show doesn't make stars.



Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...#ixzz14r5EpLV7

[Perdita]

Katie Waissel is reportedly planning to sing Elton John's 'The Bitch Is Back' on this week's X Factor.

According to The Mirror, Waissel hopes that her song selection will show viewers a more playful side to her character and demonstrate that she has a sense of humour about herself.

It was previously confirmed that this Saturday's X Factor live show will have an Elton John theme.

A source said: "Katie has been a diva but has also had her fair share of problems on the show, and the idea is this song will show she doesn’t take herself too seriously.

"The track shows she is up for a laugh and can see she isn't universally liked. It will be a bit tongue-in-cheek. She knows she can't be everyone's cup of tea but wants to get across a jokey element."

However, the source noted: "This could be the perfect song to do that, but clearly some people might take it literally because they have already made their mind up about her."

Waissel recently defended herself against accusations that she is 'fake', claiming that she is "just a girl that wants to go and sing".

[Perdita]

DERMOT O'Leary let slip last night that X Factor WAS fixed.
The ITV1 show's host revealed a plot was hatched to save oddball singer Katie Waissel minutes before the four judges voted.

It RELIED on Cheryl Cole - mentor to both Katie, 24, and ousted Treyc Cohen, 28 - being made to vote early and abstaining until her fellow judges' verdicts.

Dermot, 37, outraged viewers by then giving her no say.

He said he was told: "If Cheryl decides to opt out we go to majority vote."

The plot - which involved refusing to let Cheryl Cole have the last say on who got the boot - was cooked up at the 11th hour, according to the presenter.

It means livid X Factor fans who accused the ITV1 show of a fix after Sunday night's travesty were RIGHT.

As mentor to both the acts in the bottom two following the public's vote, Cheryl was unwilling to choose between them as she and her fellow judges decided who to send home.

Bosses had banked on her doing just that - and went out of their way to make sure.

Viewers had expected that since her acts were involved, she would be the last of the four judges to vote.

She was instead asked to choose BEFORE she knew all the other judges' votes - so initially abstained.

With the decision at 2-1 to send Treyc Cohen home, Cheryl then desperately tried to level it at 2-2.

But Dermot enraged viewers by ignoring her - meaning she had no say at all.

Deadlock would have seen the singer with fewest public votes - Katie - being axed.



Last night Dermot lifted the lid on what happened with show chiefs behind the scenes.

He confessed: "We talked about it in the break because you find out two or three minutes before what's going to happen.

"My producer said, 'Look, if Cheryl decides to opt out we go to majority vote'.

"She did decide to opt out - and then she said, 'Come back to me and we'll do deadlock'."

Dermot defended not letting her put Katie's fate in the hands of the public by saying: "You can't do that because then it kind of devalues the other two judges' votes so that wouldn't have made sense."

But he admitted of the order in which the panel had to vote: "It would have been a lot easier for me for Cheryl to be last."

The presenter said of Cheryl abstaining: "There's no precedent to it so it's tricky."

He insisted he only followed the rules - but last night X Factor said there were NO rules.

A spokeswoman said: "Cheryl was well within her rights to do what she did. There are no official rules on X Factor."

Show supremo Simon Cowell has twice seen two of his acts come bottom - and on both occasions was the judge who got to vote last.

He even admitted on Sunday that Treyc was the better singer - but Katie made for better TV.

Yesterday pop babe Cheryl, 27, was unavailable for comment - as she plugged her new album in sexy snaps of herself sprawled in a see-through frock.

Around 1,200 fans have complained to ITV and Ofcom about Sunday's fiasco - with thousands more blasting the show on Facebook and Twitter.

Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger, 32 - who was a stand-in judge during this year's series - said Treyc would be justified in thinking she was "unfairly treated".



Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...#ixzz14rdgukp8

[tammyy2j]

I always knew it was rigged

[Chloe O'brien]

Yeah and if Katie ends up in the bottom two it will be rigged again.

[Siobhan]

Yeah and if Katie ends up in the bottom two it will be rigged again.

No.. if Katie ends up in bottom two against any of the others except Wagner, and stays.. then it is totally rigged... If Katie and Cher are in bottom 2, I can see Cheryl taken the vote then to keep Cher and she would have no issue about it.. we all know Cher is her favourite and she will ignore the rest.. Shame really cause Rebecca is her best act.

[Chloe O'brien]

If Katie and Cher end up in the bottom two and the judges are asked to vote the usual way with the mentor who's acts are in the bottom two vote last. Dannii will probably send Katie home as is the only judge with any brains this year. Simon and Louis might vote to save Katie again because they like her. This would leave Cheryl with the deciding vote either save Katie, save Cher and go to deadlock or chicken out of voting again and mimi me Cher-L goes home.

So if any Xfactor spies are reading this. Play by the rules. If Katie ends up in the bottom two again and she gives the weakest performance in the sing off she goes.

[Perdita]

Dermot O'Leary has claimed that his quotes about last week's X Factor have been taken out of context by The Sun newspaper.

The tabloid lead with the headline 'Dermot: It Was Rigged', following his admission that the producers were aware that Cheryl Cole could choose to abstain from selecting one of her acts to send home.

O'Leary revealed that he had spoken with production about the possibility Cole would refuse to pick either Katie Waissel or Treyc Cohen and said that they had agreed that if it did happen they would go to a majority verdict from the panel, rather than let her vote last and send it to deadlock.

The newspaper implies that the production team were aware that Waissel had got less votes than Cohen and wanted to keep her in, rather than let it go to deadlock and the public vote. It suggests that this is the reason why the producers asked Cole for her vote second, rather than last, as has been the case traditionally when a judge has two acts in the sing-off.

However, in a statement on Twitter, O'Leary has clarified his remarks and has denied that there is any sort of "plot" on the ITV1 show.

"Just thought I'd clear up The Sun story. Bless them. Wrong end of the stick, as always. No 'plot' as quoted," he said.

"We never know which way the judges are going to vote. Ever. The only thing I know is who's in the bottom two when I'm given the card. I don't know which judge to go to until I'm called, and the judges, including Simon [Cowell], don't know the vote or who we're coming to next. It's that simple."

Meanwhile, in a new statement about the rules of the show, the X Factor team have insisted that Cole broke no rules in choosing not to pick an act.

"A judge can abstain from placing a vote," said a show rep. "Cheryl made it clear that she would not send anyone home and therefore abstained from voting.

"Dermot went back to her to clarify that it was going to go to a majority vote if she did that. Cheryl was unable to take the vote to deadlock as deadlock requires a valid active vote."

[Chloe O'brien]

Dermot stop digging a hole for yourself. The whole of the country know Sunday night was rigged. The can release any sob story they want to try and redeem themselves but it's pointless.

[tammyy2j]

X Factor star Katie Waissel has suggested that she is being unfairly targeted by the media.

The 24-year-old has frequently found herself at the centre of tabloid stories.

However, she claims they are "pointing the finger at the wrong person" when it came to "fake" contestants.

She told X Magazine: "I'm not an actress. I'm not being paid to play a villain role.

"I'm just a girl that wants to go and sing, that's it.

"So to get so much stick for something I haven't done... and also for them pointing the finger at the wrong person.

"[Because] people should really open their eyes and take a look around. It's not fair. But the truth always prevails in the end, and I'm trying to get my side of the truth out, which is what I'm doing now... I just wanted to make the point that I'm not fake."

She continued: "I find that awful. Why would people think I was ungenuine?

"Because other people on the show haven't been genuine, so they wanna make me that kind of person? No. I'll always be true to myself and stand up for what I believe in."