Why is this? Is it the producers way of telling the judges who they want voted out or is it because the judges remember who sang second when deciding? For some reason every week I always can tell who is going to be voted out by whether they're put singing first or second......

Also has anyone else noticed that they have never taken it to deadlock yet this year?!?

It's because the act the producers want out is usually on early and whoever of the 2 performed first on the Saturday performs first in the singoff.

The exception to this was Paije v Cher where they reversed this general rule.

I suspect the producers have far easier and less subtle ways of informing the judges who to leave.

Yes... Cos they know Misha is the least popular out of everyone left.

Notice Kitty, first two times she was in the bottom 2 they had her on late in the show then last week when they got rid of her she was on 1st

So if Craig is bottom 2 today things don't bode well for him

whoever stands on the right.. (there was a thread somewhere..) always goes

This pattern is not as consistent as you'd think. Rachel A. went after Rikki and Lloyd on the performance nights of Week 2 and Week 4, yet performed first in the sing-off each time. The latter rule though does apply in that Lloyd had the 'B2 pimp slot'.

Ruth, on the other hand, sang first BOTH times in the sing-off, and yet was saved each time.

They don't always go at all.

Indeed, as ePastorJames points out, it's a no where near as consistent as people make out.

It's more a case of the two things being dependant on one another, that is the one going first would've likely have performed in the "filler" slots (2-4) and therefore be deemed not strong enough to open/close the show and therefore be more likely to leave.

pretty much this series they have!

And other series they haven't, looking at 2008 in particular, 5 of the 7 eliminations were of the second perofrmer. In 2007 is was 3/3. Some years it goes one ways, some years others and some years it's a mix of the two. You can't read too much into it