I can picture the producers pulling their hair out wondering how he keeps surviving.

Honestly I hate how blatantly rigged this show can be to frontrunners (Janet, Frankie as dire as he was) but in this case I WANT him sabotaged

Of course they do. I despise the man, but him winning would be just what the show deserves. Part of me hopes he does just to piss off Cowell et al.

I agree

Yeah its his turn next, I envision tabloid stories about him had a recording contract in the past or something. He's been a nice little earner for them with the Scouse vote but there's a danger of him staying longer than the 'hipper' acts.

I agree -the final 2 being Rylan and Christopher. Mind you if I voted, out of that pair I'd go for Rylan.

I'm beginning to hope this is the last year for UK XF -the British version is a joke now imo.

Nope. I'm sure they are pretty happy to have him in for now. They might even get enough people to feel sorry for him to make a rush-released album viable like they did with the McDonald Brothers.

Syco didn't sign the Macs

Where do people get this notion that Simon Cowell gives a shit about who wins? How many winners have actually made it big?

If he really cared there would be no shit singers put through to live shows.

Yes they did.

Unless Wikipedia is failing me...

James and Christopher final for me.

of course they do

No, they like the cruise ship controversy. It gives the judges something to bicker about.

rylan and chris for me lol

Oh, not you as well

The show is on the slide and is going to have massive changes next year already. Gary's exit being already set up in the papers, if you hadn't already noticed how blindingly obvious it has been on the show itself.

Of course they want Lucifer on the show, because then people are voting for Lucifer and giving them money. And it's their hook to try and get viewers to watch it play out. He's the real controversy, not Rylan. They don't give a monkeys who wins, indeed the most successful and ones they have given most support and backing to didn't.

Lucifer winning would actually play right into their hands because it gives them the story they are looking for to rebrand next year. The 10th year.

The only ones to suffer are us having to endure him each week. And by him staying rewarding the most unbearable, desperate, and emotionally manipulative contestant since Dead Wife Man. The system can't be beaten by doing precisely what the system is telling you to do.

After all these years you'd think people would have realised, you've seen it all before. Every year in fact, just not as manipulatively as this before.

Liverpool vote for their own. If he goes so does their voting revenue.

I expect most can't stand him, that seems to be the general sentiment. Even the Liverpool Echo felt the need to run an exposé on him.

This level of manipulation isn't geographic, it's emotional. Highly effective and been at work since they engineered his exit and then his return via the wildcard vote. You have an unholy mix of a very desperate manipulative contestant, and a show that also seeks to manipulate for its own gain.

Which is why I set up a certain thread right at the start to warn against what would be coming and what we'd be stuck with.

It is getting increasingly depressing exactly how LONG we are being stuck with him though

I work in Liverpool, there is nowhere near the same level of obvious support which there was last year for Marcus and Craig.

Chris needs to stay

No he doesn't.

Unless you are a masochist, or gullible, or both.

It's so obvious they want him out however the public will keep voting him in. I expect some sort of story to come out ala Wagner to damage his reputation thus turning voters off.

This is where you are making another mistake.

The joke contestant this time is the sympathy card contestant. This is why it has worked so well because Rylan was the one used to create the controversy. He's not the joke contestant this time though, Lucifer is.

And when you attack the sympathy card contestant, you only make it stronger. They know exactly what they are doing.

it says it all when after four weeks there is still someone in the competition i want to see eliminated more than rylan

Rylan is the Marmite one, used as villain and to split opinion. Like the Weasel, and now moving towards Kitty. The actual joke contestant though, and the reason people are dropping like flies, is in disguise this year.

As the Anti-Chris(t) would be of course.

If Christopher wins, or is even in the final, then Peter Kay can look Cowell in the eye and say, "Told you ... "

They do seem to be giving him a hard time in the press, evicted acts saying he's a diva etc... which gives me the impression that he's doing far better than anyone on the production staff wanted him to. Remember its two weeks and then quarter finals, if he's still there then I think the production staff will go into meltdown