Cowell is seriously ratcheting up the controversy and the publicity machine this year.

He's been banging on for weeks about it being a singing competion, he get's his chance to dump J&E, and he passes on it.

It's weird, SCD ended up having to get rid of their own terrible act themselves (John Sergeant), whilst XF actually want to keep theirs.

What has happened to DS today? . No news headlines between 11.42 and 20.51. That sole news page at 20.51 reporting the singles charts nearly 2 hours after they were revealed. And 14 minutes past 9 and no red breaking news banner yet for the X Factor result (which I don't know or care about cos I don't watch it).

Every decision that is made is purely with ratings in mind.

Double post

I don't know that Simon will let them. He made the decision for a reason. The reason was ratings. He'll want at least one more weekend out of them and what he says goes.

Got to love the shock and mystification of some people in the XF forum who clearly haven't appreciated thus far that Cowell is making his decisions for the good of the "show", not the acts or the competition.

Just for the record, can anyone imagine the lynchmob that would descend on the BBC if something like this happened on Strictly. I'm sure Cowell will get some abuse about this, but he can get away with it - and he knows it.

SCD did get rid of their bad act this weekend-at the end of the day XF is a master of manipulation-whether people now hate XF or love it-they will still watch it and the J and E bandwagon will go on and on. Every decision is made with the show-not the contestants, in mind.

I've just managed to get into the XF forum to see what happened.

I've never seen so many asterisks!

Yes looks like a results show which still features the twins next Sunday is likely to provide a massive ratings lead-in for the new series of I'm A Celeb.

It's all fitting into place.

I'm not sure who to blame more:

a) Simon
b) British public

Simon is genius, he knew that if the twins went out the ratings would go down.

Next week the ratings will go through the roof, increase in telephone voting, great lead in for I'm A Celeb, and the media hysteria will be off the chart.

He knew what he was doing!

SIMON! The British pubic put 'Jedward' in the bottom two, then it was left to the four JUDGES to vote out the least good act out of those two.

So Simon really did not do his job properly. Anyway massive ratings tomorrow - 15 million?

British public. They're voting for them, and clearly didn't vote for Lucie. I think it's hilarious tbh, as J&E are the most entertaining act on the show, and Lucie was hardly riviting to watch, so I don't really see a problem with what Simon did.

God knows what the peak will have been tonight. 17 million?

8 out of 10 trending topics on Twitter.

Simon choosing ratings over talent. He obviously knew that Lucie had come bottom in the phone vote, the producer Richard Holloway probably told him just before the judge's vote. People are saying that they will boycott the show next week, but the ratings will probably go up due to all the press coverage tonight's result will get.

Tonight saw the biggest surge on the National Grid after a Sunday X Factor show: 923mW.

Previous highest Sunday surge was 718mW. So I expect a 16m+ peak when the ratings come through tomorrow.

I'm sure ITV2 will get a ratings boost tonight, love or hate it, you have to admit Cowell is clever at boosting ratings for his shows especially The X Factor and it will make the headlines no doubt but unlike say, John Sargeant this will work in its favour.

I've noticed that Five have been scheduling their movies before 8pm because of the X Factor, Spider-Man 3 is currently scheduled for Sundays in two weeks at 6.15pm which isn't unusual as Spider-Man 2 was scheduled at 5.30pm for its terrestrial premiere and being shown at 4.20pm next week.

For me, X Factor is just a bit of fun and entertaining

John and Edward are both that and as long as they finish no higher than 3rd then it is ok. Some people take the show too seriously, you only have to see some of the threads in the X Factor forum!

Simon seems comfortable with it now knowing that they were in the bottom two. Clearly he feels that they aren't going to win, and that he may as well get a few more weeks out of them. Similarily Lucy wasn't going to win, so he sacrificed her.

Anyone using J&E as some kind of anti-XF vote will probably now get bored given that it's seemingly not getting to Simon.

Brilliant!!

It's always been about the ratings. The talent this year is generally 'good' at best. Certainly no Leona or Alexandra Burke in the mix. Jedward are carrying this show. Everybody is talking about them. Everybody is tuning in for them. The papers have had them on the front page almost everyday this week.

As everyone said the ratings would have dropped without them, I have no doubt in my mind about that. With the controversy this has sparked I can certainly see another boost next week.

I think 15m average, 17 million peak.

Well, an interesting night!!

I'm not even sure that this is a good thing, tbh. I think it was just a nightmare scenario. Even one or two more weeks and J&E could be allowed to go, but now is probably too soon. On the other hand, I don't think it looks good for the show, there needs to be some pretence that it's about talent.

No idea what it'll do for ratings next week. Controversy usually means up. But Strictly has had plenty and it's down.

Believe me, I'm one of those who knows X Factor is little more than a bit of light entertainment, so when previous 'upsets' like Laura White leaving, Daniel getting through week after week last year etc, I just went with the flow and enjoyed it for what it is.

Tonight changed my mind.

I have no doubt ratings will be massive next week. Huge. But I don't think I'll be one of the ones watching. You can always tell that decisions are made with ratings in mind but tonight was beyond farcical. I like two of the remaining contestants and that doesn't justify watching the show for me....

Even the BBC doing their bit for the cause. "Jones out as fans save 'Jedward'" is the most popular article on the BBC News website right now.

X Factor would have brought in huge ratings tonight, but I can also see Doc Martin doing really well, not only the huge lead in from X Factor as per, but it's also the last of the series, I can see it getting near 10m.

Quite funny also how The X Factor gets a thread on BBC forums: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbpointsofv...thread=7061612

I think we can safely say tonight's X Factor rating will be the third most watched show of the year behind both BGT final shows.

Next week will be extremely interesting on the Saturday:

BBC1
18:05 - Merlin
18:50 - Strictly Come Dancing
20:30 - The National Lottery Draws
20:40 - Casualty
21:30 - The Impressions Show with Culshaw and Stephenson

ITV1
16:15 - International Football (k/o 17:00)
19:30 - Harry Hill's TV Burp
20:00 - The X Factor
21:30 - Piers Morgan's Life Stories

ITV will be hoping the football start... somehow, some way has a delayed start. Crowd conjestion, whatever... otherwise it'll finish about 18:50.

If X Factor gets over 12 million on Saturday, then all bets are off for Sunday my view.

You know what I'm waiting for? Tomorrow night, during the final break of Collision, a promo for News at Ten...

"Tonight on News at Ten, the first EXCLUSIVE interview with Simon Cowell revealing why he never saved Lucie from The X Factor"

Who wants to agree with me?