Looks like we vote from Thursday onward, and whoever wins the vote performs on Saturday. That'll upset people who vote every weekend but who don't follow the forums / gossip sites, etc.

I want to see who I'm voting for, too. How pregnant is 1 of 2Shoes exactly? Is Amelia still bitter about having been thrown out? Can James sing if he has no guitar? And Jonjo... well, forget Jonjo, frankly!

I'm not sure how well this will work. Will the fans who would vote in a decent singer actually know about the vote, for example?

I'm in two minds about this. Well, three - I wanted Johnny back! But I can see why X-Factor has done this - it's so they don't have to refund any vote money, since none of these four were ever the subject of public vote.

Bit unfair someone getting a shoe-in halfway through the series though.

But I digress.

I was thinking that too, are they going to have announcements on ITV at times they think lots of people will be watching? Otherwise, there are going to be more complaints when Dermot announces who is returning by public vote, when 1000s of viewers won't even have known a vote was happening.

More for Ofcom to get their teeth into.

If I were one of the current Top 7, I'd ask politely to have a by for the next 5 weeks, so I could just show up in the final without having to perform every week. After all, that's what this act will be getting!

Oh you have made me laugh, what if all of them did that... big finale that would be.

I have already commented on this, I work with people who watch and vote, never visit web sites and will be shocked I am sure when I tell them tomorrow, not been there today.

So with half the nation or more not knowing this has gone on how will they feel when they are told ... and we welcome back.. xxx they will be like wtf is going on.

Are they going to spend loads on ads in newspapers, are they going to have ads on TV every night .. in the hope it reaches viewers.. it does not give the public that long to find out, so some won't I am sure.

Just because Frankie was headlines today does not mean people will have taken much notice, it is hardly a war that happened, just some stupid lad in a stupid TV show, many like my brother will not even consider whether they will bring anyone back, when I mentioned it he said REALLY.. surely not, not at this late stage....which is what most sane people will be thinking I am sure.

GG

No you wouldn't because this twist was done under exceptional circumstances, not because anyone 'asked politely'.

it wouldn't surprise me if they've already decidd on the replacement no matter how the vote goes ....... is the replacement going to perform on Saturday? if so surely they're rehearsing their song and routine now, just like the current contestants or that would be unfair to them to have no proper rehearsal

what a mess

If they waited until Saturday and made them perform again they couldn't eliminate one on Sat, meaning they'd lose money, this way Coke-up-nose-zza has done them a favour, no doubt calls will cost £p per minute to vote one of the four back in on top of the weekends elimination, they're just cashing in, would've been much simpler to put Johnny back in

This twist is as messy as Frankie's hair.

Someone else mentioned this, and it is part of the mess, as are they all back here in England, as two of them could be somewhere else, ie Jonjo and also James. It has to be a fair level playing field and be shown to be one, ie we get to see them rehearsing, bad enough we have to vote form memory it would seem.. which I do not agree with, they should have been given a new song, made to sing it live the public vote what about people who only watch the actual live shows, they will not even have seen these four, other than for one song.. which none of them did very well.. a total farce.

PMSL

I assumed they would do something like:

Saturday:
Top of the show, the 4 possible replacements sing. Voting opens.
Rest of the show, the others sing. At the end, voting opens.

Sunday:
[guest]
Announce who is safe from the 4 possibles.
[guest]
Announce who is safe from the rest.
Singoff.

But I suppose it would be awkward, the 4 possibles would have to be put up in a hotel nearby, but rehearse in the house on Thurs and Fri, and be ready to move in on Sunday night / Monday morning.

Still, I think that would have been a more reasonable way to do it. It would have been more obvious to people who only watch the show at weekends and don't follow gossip papers, websites etc.

Oh, they've announced that a vote for the 4 possibles will close in Saturday's show, so presumably people will get told about it and have a chance to vote, even if it's not for very long.

So some people vote and they chose one of the 4 original rejects and we're told who it is on Saturday. Then there is another vote Saturday/Sunday (as usual), is the rejected one in danger of being voted out immediately then, or are they being allowed to stay at least one week. That's a bit unfair to the others.

The story is being run on the entertainment page of the BBC new site and presumably other newspaper sites so I imagine anyone who goes online and has the faintest interesy in X Factor will know about it

I think it all seems to be so confusing I think in fairness it would have been better to let the four acts preform live again.

I hope they are able to be voted out straight away!

What IS unfair is that all 4 of them will be rehearsing now for Saturday in case they are chosen but 3 will go home without singing again... I think that's really tough.

I'd rather they'd all sung again so we could choose between them when they were fresh in our minds. It would be fairer I think. Poor James was nobbled by the wrong song last time out.

My 90 something year old Nan in Law won't know about it.
And some of the younger kids who watch won't. Etc.