If Louis walsh does not attend tomorrow, will his bands automatically get his vote again (as happened last week with Kandy rain) if they are up for eviction. is it fair?? Last week did not matter much as it came down finally to the public vote, but that cannot be guaranteed this week.

I don't think it'll matter. I can't see either of the two groups left being in the bottom two tonight. I could be wrong... but we'll see, I guess.

Yes it is fair!

Has a judge ever voted against their own contestant? I don't think so .... it's a given they will vote to save their own, so I don't see a problem with it.

Why ever not? If he was there he would vote for them. A mentor would not vote against his own. Wil be interesting to see what happens if Jedward and Miss FRANK were the bottom two though!

Simon was mentor to the groups in 2005...and sent the Conway Sisters home

I remember simon voted off the conway sisters who were his own act.....i dont think any judge though would ever do it again...id love it though id respect the mentor more if they played the game properly......louis is always going to save his own act and therefore it is fair but i would like to see what would happen if its for example 1 of simons and 1 of cheryls....because then the losing act would always think what if louis had brought it to deadlock.....

Really?! So he's not infallible then and can admit it when he's wrong! I've never heard of the Conway sisters ... not sure I watched it in 2005

I agree though, I would respect the judges' opinions more if they'd save who they REALLY wanted instead of just saving face.

They had been bottom 2 three weeks in a row and they already had a backlash over Maria - I think he was saving face to be honest.

I think 9it goes without saying that the judges will vote for their acts to stay no matter what.

The only one who I think wouldn't is Simon - and thats only in extreme circumstances. I doubt last year he would've saved Scott over most of the other acts - off course he did over Daniel, but that was because Dan wasn't that great (nice bloke though)

The Conway sisters were superb, a genuinely talented Irish group, they really do put the likes of J & E to shame.

Can't remember why he voted them off, all part of the master plan I'm sure.

They were dreadful!
..if you think they were superb..well..
Anyway im pretty confident neither J and E or Miss Frank will be bottom Two.

Louis non attendance tonight and last week are under pretty exceptional circumstances, so i say cut them some slack, no doubt hes been talking to simon and keeping in touch with whats going on and the groups wont suffer if they are good enough!

And all credit to him when he did, because it was the right decision.... I can't imagine Louis ever doing that though.

I think it is fair, because Louis would vote to keep his own act.
The Conway Sisters aside (and Simon made the right decision at that time and gained himself some points with the public!) the judges always vote for their own.
Which, the majority of the time, is quite right too - the judges are there to look out for their category, supposedly.

If it is NOT a group in the bottom two, I do think it's possible it might work out unfairly for the one who goes. Because, if Louis took it to deadlock, the public vote might have sent someone else home.
If that happens we will have to wait for some "leaked" voting figures to establish if the outcome was fair or not. And that will depend on whether you believe these figures or not.