that will make for good tabloid fodder.

Honestly how the 9 million people who still watch it, dont see this for what it is, is beyond me? are there lives so empty that they honestly experince the highs and lows of life, is via what happens on X-Factor? as anyone else would see it for what it is.

The whole thing continues to be a mystery to me.

Clearly ITV have been paying attention to the low Xtra Factor ratings and scripted a cliffhanger with Barlow

My mother is claiming she saw a man talk to Louis during the performances, too much wine tonight for her

But she could be on to something.. Could the X Factor be a, be a f-f-fix

This happened all the time when Cowell was around. X Factor was more popular than ever!

Same old same old from X Factor then.

Plenty of unhappy viewers on Twitter. Doubt they'll vote with their remotes and stop watching though, fortunately for ITV.

The peak for XF is now gonna be huge, 12m at least.

It won't be 12m. No way.

Hassaan, you don't seem to understand that we don't look into our crystal balls thinking what may happen. The peak for tonight won't be affected by what happened tonight, whatsoever. I don't tune in in anticipation that X or Y is going to occur.

The key figure if there is media interest is next weekend.

Did Downton Abbey start early?

Fair point. The peak will probably be somewhere around 9.8-10.4m as per usual, but I don't think we'll see a massively huge peak. Hassaan does seem to overpredict as far as TXF is concerned.

It's what the producers feed on: negative stories and complaints to gain interest. As long as the show gets people talking, they don't care because it's not mutually exclusive with viewing figures.

The show lost all credibility years ago and if Cowell and his Syco muppets have any decency, this would be the last series.

I think I got carried away there a bit after seeing what just happened, BUT we'll see tomorrow.

Saw this on twitter, https://twitter.com/SamanthaOvens/st...36126404943875

I know all reality shows stage stuff, but the way they made it so obvious was ridiculous. Like they know they have to make it painfully obvious just to get the press' attention now..

True. But it does smack of desperation now that viewing figures are lower.

When stunts such as this have happened in the past, say Cowell putting Jedward through, I seem to remember the audience bouncing up as word spread of it occuring.

In fairness, this behaviour is consistent with all years regardless of the ratings. But that's why I think it's hopeless - as I said in a thread on the XF forum the other day, they need some new angles.

People have always known it is manipulated. I remember national news broadcasts suggesting that Louis Walsh walking off the show in 2005 was a deliberate ploy to distract the media from the Fuller/Cowell court case that was due to start the next week. The debate over "real or fake" has been half the success of the show!

But what we saw tonight - and indeed with Rylan himself - is that they're just playing out the same stories again and again. The best hope for this actually causing some controversy is that the press get on the "we saw the producer beside Louis" story (and I think Louis genuinely wavered from his orders at first but did as he was told in the end). The result itself was utterly predictable.

Absolutely, the X Factor really has no credibility at all, they wanted to keep the joke act in, and they managed to do it, despite Louis nearly messing it up for them.

Tee show is a complete joke, people know this and as a result will this mean more people are put off it.

Well it worked as far as Twitter is concerned. TXF was barely trending at around 8.45 IIRC. After 9pm it had maybe 7 of 10 trends?

So job done in that respect.

It does seem odd they would make it so 'obvious'. As if the goal is to make it all out to be a fix, to increase the figures that way.

Can't work out who the person is. Don't think it's Richard Holloway (though he has some locks these days)...

More people probably hung around to see the result so the peak might be slightly higher than it otherwise would have been, but it isn't suddenly going to be huge because there hasn't been as much interest to begin with. I'd predict around a 10m average and 10.5-11m peak (with +1, which could be crucial and very intersting), considering how it rated last night and the peaks it has had previously.

They probably didn't expect that bottom 2 so early on especially as both acts have been heavily featured but they grasped the opportunity with both hands and milked it for all it was worth. They had the actual result, but also an indecisive Louis (and a producer whispering in his ear), Gary & Nicole arguing and Gary storming off (with a camera conveniently set up to get the footage). They'll be hoping for the press interest to take off with the 'material' they provided tonight, and they'll do all they can for Rylan to make it through by public vote next week (complete with announcing him as the final act through).

I'm very interested to see the +1 figures and the figures for the first part of Xtra Factor. Interesting week ahead, it was quite funny TV but I could see right through it. The figures for next week will show if the public still buy it or not.

how anyone can hope to come out of this circus with any artistic creditability is beyond me.

We're talking about X Factor judges here...........

Yet it delivers three times the audience of most ITV entertainment shows and makes a lot of brass for them. I know it's not exactly BAFTA award winning material that gets glowing write ups in the broadsheets, but TXF delivers the goods. I watch it to unwind in the pub now.

Well largely they dont.

I havent watched XF at all yet I know what has gone on as though I had. How much is staged is open to question. the fact that the "joke"(is he as much of a joke as Wagner etc?) act was in the bottom two was pretty much a godsend for the stuff X Factor is the past master at manipulating.
If there was any justice though as so many people are so indignant would be that they will give up watching-but the chances are they wont.

Desperation to the producers would be bringing back Carolynne next week on a 'wildcard'.

It seems they want to mould Rylan into a 'Wagner' and build up a quiet fanbase for him. I would be surprised if he lasts a third week on the show. Then the niche is gone.