What utter shite.

Nicholas has got a very good, solid voice on him. He remembers lyrics and comes across well on camera.
Luke is unique, has a decent voice. He remembers lyrics and comes across well on camera.
Sam B has an amazing voice. She remembers lyrics and comes across well on camera.
Rough copy had shit voices. They remembered lyrics and came across ok on camera.
Tamera had a good voice. She forgot lyrics constantly and came across terribly on camera.
Hannah had a good voice. She remembered lyrics and came across ok on camera.

Tamera - someone who you clearly think isn't a bland singer - went, not because people prefer Nicholas and Luke because their bland, but because she was getting worse as the week went by and was not likeable. Same with RC.

This is all that needs to be said.

In the 31 finalists to date we have had five finalists from the girls category.

Amelia lily, rebecca ferguson, Stacey Solomon, Alexandra Burke and Leona lewis

Cher Lloyd.

AND Little Mix. And Sam B.

Yes, not in the girls category, but they are girls.

You have no argument here.

I disagree: Nikolas and Luke are way less talented than Tamera and Hannah. Weakish white male singers do much better than they should on the show.

This is true jeref but the reality is that people go for acts who show a lot of likability with decent vocals and that is what the public will vote for. For me and you and few others, it's not our cuppa tea

This.

It's not about whether the young female singers are liked or disliked. It may sound obvious, but it's about whether they're enough people's favourite.

You see, if you were to categorise the tiny minority of people who actually vote, probably one of the biggest demographics will be young girls. Girls like Tamera may be generally liked by this demographic, and indeed will be their audience after the show, but within the confines of a popularity/karaoke show such as this, they're not necessarily going to be their favourite. That will be more likely to be a boy or boy group. This thereby leaving the girls picking up the voting scraps and often leaving mid-season, and the boys breezing through to the finals.

Tis true. But of course let's not kid ourselves that the ability to collect votes is any measure of who could sell records. Possibly quite the opposite. Dull, inoffensiveness may help when within the confines of a karaoke gameshow, but it's not going to help very much in building a music career afterwards. <cough> Leon Jackson <cough> And that's one reason why X-Factor has such a credibility problem.

Statistics show that females struggle in all reality shows in the UK. Sometimes one girl a series will pick up votes if she has terrible male competition. Age has nothing to do with it though imo- Sam Bailey is the first woman from the overs category to reach the final in 10 years.

However if she was 15 years younger the press would be looking for dirt and in turn put people off her vote.

If she was 15 years younger she would not have the every woman doing it for the family type vote either

Exactly the main thing going for Sam B is her age, if she were younger, the viewing public would try to find some flaw with her like they did with Hannah who was literally the bubbliest person I've seen on this show since Diana. But no, they all hated her guts...some for the inane reason that she's not likable!

Also the British voting public hate pretty girls as well, because they get jealous, which is what I think happened with Tamera. Jealousy is a tedious but powerful emotion. And Sam B would have had the same problems if she were younger.