I am puzzled as to why anyone spends their money giving someone a sympathy vote maybe because of their sob stoey or how they are treated by the press.

People should be voting on performance and whose music they will buy.

What can you hope to gain by voting on sympathy. How would that act feel knowing they did not get any further on the X Factor by merit but by people feeling sorry for them.

People voting to get their own back on Simon Cowell are just as bad.

applauds

very sensible advice

It works though. Some posters on the forum have admitted voting for certain people just out of sympathy or to poke fun.

Agreed.

I saw someone say ''When Louis Walsh said that to Chris, i voted for Chris three times, and i don't even like Chris''

I mean really? What does that achieve. It's crazy.

Because its seems that this has become less of a singing contest more a Big Brother on stage thing. Witness the sob stories, the crying, the cynical promotion of joke acts.

By the way i have read many threads attacking James Arthur for aspects other than his voice and stage presence - people seem to enjoy digging up irrelevant tittle tattle.

Less of that in future and just get on with the singing.

Votes = £money.

Ultimately the show will have targets for income. I presume they've been struggling to hit the numbers they'd like and hence their preparedness to exploit whatver angles they can to generate more votes.

You can guarantee Dermot will earnestly tell us several times tonight how close the voting is, how there's nothing between the bottom two and the position has changed during the show. There's nothing wrong with reasonably plugging the phone vote but I bet 80% of Dermot's autocue will be about voting tonight.

I don't think Daniel Evans would have even made the live shows or past week 2 without his 'dead wife' back story.

Remember the bottom two sing off when Daniel dedicated the song to his dead wife while singing looking up to the heavens? Poor Auntie Louie couldn't contain himself.

Of course, Daniel blamed the producers after the show for exploiting him. Ho hum.

I have never voted for anyone in sympathy, however I have voted for people in protest of x factor.

Why put Christopher in the live shows when they knew at auditions he was not a recording artist?

Why put Rylan in the live show when he is not a recording artist?

Simple, they were only put there to give controversy and so the judges had someone to vent off at.

So I say ....quite simply, if they take that chance, then they should also be looking at the chance of them winning.

Before people point fingers and accuse , its a 2 way thing, if x factor do not want them to get votes, then they should not put them to live shows.

Secondly, if they want to use manipulation on the public through the press , then why should the public not manipulate right back?

:yawn:

You are giving money to the person you disagree with in protest?

Smart

I hardly think 35p for a single vote equates to much in the whole scheme of things

Completely agree

I'd separate the two..

I can't totally understand why people are voting to get at Cowell, as it's a protest vote which, hopefully, will teach him a lesson..and IMO he'll get what's due to him.

However, I'm in total agreement about this endless blub-fest we're being subjected to.

It's getting beyond desperate.

First we had "Me-nan," R-Wayne Mk1
Then we had the never ending saga of how difficult Jahmene's life has been: R-Wayne Mk2. cue Nicole Sherzinger welling up and blubbing all over the place.

The first 20 minutes, or so of the show was taken up with all of this stuff..and I'm not sure what they hope to achieve from it, because I'll bet half the viewing public is sitting at home saying: "Oh just get on with it FFS!"

I know I am..I'm watching the show in the vain hope that someone will actually sing!

If, this amounts to more in the way of protest votes then I guess it'll been counter productive..

I had a lot of gripes about Rylan, but at least in the end the guy was gracious and had some dignity!

Rich
x

That logic has made Simon Cowell a very rich man indeed.....

Why not?

You're allowed to vote before any of the contestants have even sung a note, which just confirms to me that XF is not about singing, so why shouldn't the public vote for a sob story or vote to kick $imon Cowell in the testicles?

I see it less as a "sympathy vote" and more a "backlash" vote!!! If they DONt want/see someone to win, DONt put them through!! IF they take the publics money in the process of finding the winner then DONt manipulate the competition!!

I've never understood the voting to get at cowell nonsense because its a complete myth that it hurts cowell anyway.if chris wins and doesn't sell even one single it won't really matter as the winners contract has already been covered by the money made off the show and won't cost cowell a single penny. I mean really , do you think that top tv and cowell's record label financial execs didn't work this into things when they first planned the show. However cowell does want to win will get the promo they need and have had the exposure anyway so they'll get signed. Just look at one direction they didn't win , came third but are massive now anyway . Any vote for any contestant is a plus for cowell , he even fools everyone by saying don't vote chris knowing he'll get even more votes equalling more money again. The only way to get at cowell is don't vote ( no phone money), don't watch ( lower viewing figures= less sponsors money) don't buy the records ( no direct income ).

Sympathy votes can go in an acts favour - Simon slated the McDonalds every week (except for 500 Miles when he said 'That was very good' ) and they finished in 4th place

I'm sure some people voted because they liked them (they were very likeable young men), but there must have been a % who voted because Simon was so hard on them