All this about Edith being 'the favuored one' is just daft. If Aled had been in instead of Edith, do you think Chris Moyles would have said nothing on the Breakfast Show? Course not. Plenty of EE cast members were in the FA studios each night, and regularly got on the telly to plug her.

Technical faults and ill-thought out voting times aside, Edith may well have won because:

* She undoubtedly mopped up a lot Reggi and Ade's votes after they'd gone.
* People preferred a gutsy performance to a technical one
* She had a better range of songs covered over the past fortnight.
* She wasn't a singer beforehand (classic underdog).
* Kyms voters may have been at the pub or in bed!

Kim was robbed? Ade was robbed more like if you reckon the final BND night was all set up for the voting to be rigged. Okay I didn't think Edith was anything special, but as far as I can see she won fair and square.

BND = Big Nose Day?

Something being done poorly doesn't mean someone was robbed.

Fact was Edith got more votes on the day - her supporters may have run a better timed campaign but it happens in every election - ask Kerry. Kim had an Eastenders audience and star support Thursday and Edith had Radio 1 support Friday up against whatever support Kim's fans put up. Thats what happens though when you allow pre-voting because you want to maximise the money. You can't stop it anymore than you can equalise the popularity of the students when they went in. You don't know how it effects any of the results - it could be it makes no difference it could mean some people had won almost every evening vote before they sang. it doesn't matter as each call meant money. It just shows they have loyal fans. Less support for either finalist would equal less money.

The first vote actually had enough time for the undecided to decide and vote if you watch it again. The second ended as Kim was still being judged which cut out the undecideds. The decideds though could vote both times for the full ten minutes, and if Edith was bad the undecideds could vote for Kim half way through, just as some undecideds might give Edith an early vote if she was good, Look how late everything was running though and who would have been running the timings and the script and it looks more like someone going unthinkingly through a checklist to get the final result in near its original time. Given the same directing team gave Edith no sound or time to sing again, they hardly look biased.


As someone posted the other problem was the lack of phone votes which seems to be a technical or financial issue and the fact they did not advertise the change in voting enough . Put the sound back on for Edith's song, let the last of the undecided voters have a chance to see both singers be judged both times, have a phone vote and we might have had the same or a different result with a few million more votes, Hope they sort that out next time as they lost a top CFA final a bit in a wider programme with other priorities.

it doesn't actually matter though . The two most interesting singers made it to the final. They both did well and all the judges for once summed them both up well. They both should be delighted with what they did.

I think these are fair comments. The BBC cocked it up with a rushed ill-thought out final. I just feel we don't know the "true result" - and before the Edith fans jump on me - I perfectly accept that with "normal" voting conditions Edith may well have won anyway.

I agree fully with your final paragraph.

Thanks everyone for some fun dialogue - we may not have always agreed on everything, but I think we all agree that the ultimate result - the amount of dosh raised - was worth it!

How Soon Is Now - over and out (until the next time.......)

Stay online a bit longer....

Just a note to all the people complaining that Colin Murray's radio show made FA unfair - why did you all keep listening to it? And what did you expect?

Are you really saying that if someone from where you work who you are the best of friends with was in FA, you wouldn't do everything you could to support them?

There are loads of factors that *could* have made this FA unfair on Edith, on Kim or on any of the others. But that's the case in *every* reality show. I don't know why it's such a surprise!!

I agree with the last paragraph too. I will finally add however, whatever the money is raised for I hate unfairness in competetions and kim and ade were the winners.
Anyway Comic releif are the winners and thats all that matters.

No, I agree. You can't blame Colin for doing his best for his mate. But you must agree that a whole group of potential voters were unable to cast their votes, whilst a large group of Edith fans were lucky to get a good and fair warning of the change(?what are the audience figures) - and the bias would have been against the Ade/Kim fans. Not Colin's fault - the BBC's. You can see why one group would feel a little cheated?

And the Eastenders cast obviously neglected their duties by not beating the Edith campaign for Kim!

As much as I would like to slate EE, I would ask how the f...
the cast were supposed to take on a two week campaign by a multi million 24/7 radio show and the many other BBC shows , who made supporting Edith a priority for some bizarre reason!

My apologies, after re reading my post I used a poor choice of words, I do not know anyone in EE but if they wanted to I'm sure they could have done a few daytime TV programmes and the like to rally support for Kim.

I do know for a fact that there were a sizable amount of EE cast in the academy on each broadcast night, sometimes up to ten people and if you look back to the main show and the BBC3 show there were a good proportion of them interviewed. My sister was invited down to support Edith by the beeb and attended the first four academy shows and pointed out that Kims group of supporters in the studio would ALWAYS well outnumber everyone else's. That is not a problem as they were there to show their support for their colleague.

At the end of the day, with respect to all those who took part, it doesn't really matter who won the show as the the whole thing was for the benefit of charity.

I have to say even I did not expect Edith to win as I thought the millions of EE fans would have voted her as winner by the middle of last week so if I was in colin's shoes I would have done exactly the same thing.

I stopped listening to it after an especially long stretch of Edith-boosting.

And Colin was doing a great job of drumming up votes. For example, the show was asking people to ask their boss if the people in their office could phone in votes for Edith, in exchange for a "shout out".

Anyone who doubts that Radio 1 can generate txt messages, should consider that the R 1 audience is more "interactive" than, say, the Eastenders one and that earlier Jo Whiley was asking for, and getting, 1000s of txt messages from people who wanted to hear various Live Lounge sessions. (She didn't quite manage to get 10,000 for Will Young doing Outkast's 'Hey Ya'.)

It wasn't only Colin's show that was supporting Edith either. Earlier, when Graham Norton dropped into Jo Whiley's show and was asked who he supported, he umm'd a bit, said "Edith", then joked that it was like a "cult" in there.


It cut out me, and I wasn't undecided. It's quite natural for someone to vote after someone they like sings, or after they've all sang, even if they knew beforehand who they were going to vote for.

I also voted earlier, because I knew about the switch; but normally, I wouldn't have. Then Kim sang so well that I wanted to get in one more vote, but I didn't expect it to be cut off so quickly and I wasn't quite quick enough.

I doubt I'm the only one who decided to vote then.

Yes, because the bookmakers are always right. Just like they were with the "Making Your Mind Up" Eurovision vote.

i agree. kim performed well all week and her 'somewhere over the rainbow' was far better then ediths. But they raised loads of money for charity and its all good. Btw its Will Young..

It was nothing to do with who won, it was to do with cheating and that is why my money will go to other charities in the future and not this one.

but it wasn't the contestants themselves who 'cheated', and in any case as the whole point of this competition was to raise money- why worry too much about how it was done?

I think your attitude is absolutely despicable. Tell me how much you normally would donate, and I will double it, therefore the charity will not miss your small mindedness.

THE RAISON DETRE OF CRFA IS TO RAISE MONEY FOR CHARITY,

If you could watch those films on Friday and see the work this charity is doing and still have that attitude then I for one find it completely beyond comprehension.

Standing up and applauding you, Kirsty Scot - well said.

Add me to the list. It's incredible the way some people's brains are wired.
Well said Kirsty.
Steve.

I think people can still say what they feel, who should have won. Everyone knows it was for charity, and the contestants raised lots of money, everyones proud, but at the end of the day, it was a competition, like the X factor and pop idol, people will say what they want.

Exactly James well said if people didnt get into the show, then they wouldnt bother voting and there would be no money raised.
i was reading in the magazines today about ediths sneaky singing past. she made out she had never sang before to get votes. Sneaky or what?

I'm sorry, I don't understand who you think 'cheated'. How could Kim or Edith possibly 'cheat'?

(and why would the BBC favour either one of them?)

I don't understand.

I thought Kim was better than Edith, however I don't begrudge Edith her win, because the bottom line is
whoever you voted for, it all went to a wonderful cause.

People should focus on the money raised and not debate endlessly on whether the vote was rigged, conspiracy theories etc. It's all getting a bit overheated!

Remember, also it's "Comic Relief", not a serious singing competition and should be seen as a bit of fun and entertainment in a good cause!

Remember it's the taking part that's important, and all those celebrities who took part, whether they came last or first, generated a lot of money for charity.

Absolutely.

I get the feeling that some fms were just waiting for one mistake/potential problem to arise, so that they could immediately start yelling 'fix' as loudly as they could.

Fortunately they seem to be in a minority here, as every thread 'it was rigged' has been contributed to by lots of fms who are equally vehement in pointing out the fact that this was for charity and that it wasn't rigged in any way...

(btw - still don't understand how anyone could 'cheat though!)

I totally agree. I'd also have preferred Kim to win, but I didn't mind Edith winning because nothing was actually at stake - it wasn't as if they were competing for a record contract! At the end of the day, Comic Relief made loads of money and surely that's all that matters. I'm sure Kim isn't losing any sleep over it.