Great post. I would love to see the voting figures for series 3. I bet Leona had the largest voting leads out of any winner.

Alex wasn't even safe in the semi-final. Week 8 with Toxic/Listen made people finally see her as a contender, but she actually peaked in the final which worked out well in the end. I definitely think her year was by far the hardest. Every singer was good apart from Eoghan, but he had the teen girl vote, so it wasn't plain sailing for her.

Other singers i.e. TreyC tried to replicate what she did, but unless you properly prove yourself and work hard, it can be hard to come back and do well which is why I think more recent returnees seem to have ended up in groups.

Probably not quite everyone.

Very true re Alexandra, this year its so easy Fleur from the first series (and live show) and Steph who was a finalist on BGT seem to be walking through to the final

both with very average voices

Have I gone back in time. People talking about "Little Fix working hard to gain votes" & "James Arthur improving".

These were the two biggest fixed wins of the past 10 years. And Little Fix still haven't learned how to mime in time to a backing track!

Little Mix weren't Plan A from the start though; they only got their chance after in order, Janet, Frankie, and Misha crashed and burned, and they had already shot themselves in the foot with Amelia and Tulisa's alpha band, 'The Risk'.

look at LM's early song choices. Super Bass with a spoken-word rap? Kesha in Rock Week? not to mention the colour vomity outfits. They were there early on to be fun, entertaining, and to provide some fodder for Gary and Tulisa to have banter about poor song choices. The 'Little Fix' thing only came from about Week 4/5 on and that was after the producers had flipped horses already a few times by then.

Agree to an extent re: James though; I think again in his year everyone around him crashed and burned to an extent, they were unlucky to lose Lucy Spraggan after crushing every other female contestant in order to clear the way for her and Ella, who then appeared very boring having no-one to play off or contrast with. I think they'd hoped the two girls would balance each other with Ella's ballads and Lucy's uptempos.

If Liam Payne hadn't come back he'd be short a few million quid.

Could this apply to the judges as well please!

I see no reason to stop anyone coming back if they didn't make it all the way to the Live shows (when therefore they effectively become 'signed', linked to perform on the tour and with the option of a first pass deal at Sony Music). If you do get on the Lives then, no, you shouldn't come back.

Have no problem with anyone coming back provided it's not more than once.

This only goes to demonstrate the mans' sheer hypocrisy.

The proof for this being that "losers" have been brought back to form groups for instance. One Direction being the very best example of five "losers" who were brought back and purposely carried to stardom. Never forget that all members of 1D were voted off as not being good enough meaning that they once were in exactly the same position as those Cowell speaks of now.

Ergo, Cowell is a hypocrite.

I have always thought this is incredibly unfair on those who actually enter as groups - that they aren't just competing against the other groups but also against soloists who are losers. Not sure that Wand Erection would appreciate being called five "losers"

He loves Chloe Jasmine and she auditioned in 2006.Mrs O hated her lol.
http://metro.co.uk/2014/09/02/rememb...o-now-4853745/