Time for 3 Judges only as the sing off is a joke now

I suspect on that occasion Louis' earpiece had malfunctioned and so he was floundering for what decision to make; and being at the other end of the table from Simon he couldn't just get a heads up from him.

In terms of people that were bottom being saved; I remember Misha B was two or three times; Cher Lloyd was both times she was bottom 2 including at the semi-final; Katie Waissell was also rock bottom of the vote 3 times and saved; and Olly Murs was once as well. Tamera, Shelley, Rough Copy and Kingsland Road from last year were all saved when bottom of the vote.

Conversely certain acts are given unfavourable productions that don't reflect their vocal talents week on week to depress their chance of picking up new voters and then are knocked out as soon as they slip into the bottom 2; even when they're not bottom of the vote - see Janet Devlin, Sophie Habibis and Johnny Robinson from S8 - and probably Paul from last week too!

No matter how it's relayed to the judges, there is also an element of common sense involved. The judges will know that if a favoured act is in the bottom 2 with one of the fodder contestants, they vote to save the favoured one. A recent example was Jade v Union J in James Arthur's year where Jade got the boot despite wiping the floor with Union J in the sing-off. Hence Gary had to make the crappy excuse that Jade didn't want it enough. The only time they would need instructions is for example, Chloe v Stereo Kicks where both were favoured acts for different reasons.

Our Paul was out and about town last night, Just like any normal guy off the street, walked into the pub, as if nothing had happened. What a lovely guy he is too, posing for photo's and chatting away to the locals. I really hope his career takes off in a big way, and shows The Fix Factor just what they have missed out on. GOOD LUCK PAUL

It depends on how much control the producers want/have of the outcome of the sing-off.

If the producers decide who progresses from every sing-off then the judges need to know who is in the bottom 2 because if they don't know then they would have to vote 3-1 everytime, which to viewers would be very unrealistic, particularly as the outcome of the sing-off is almost always only decided between two judges after the other two judges have voted to save their own act.

I too hope he gets a career from it. On one of the threads is a single he's already recorded.

I already guessed that the judges knew the public vote before deciding which act to let through. The fact that a judge can willfully "send it to deadlock" like Louis last week adds to the unfairness by not making it a secret, uninformed ballot.