I noticed something weird with the pictures that were shown on the screens in the cold opening of the Top 9 Results show from November 9th.

The contestants stood on stage while Dermot introduced the show. Groups of pictures of the contestants flashed across three sets of screens in the left, center, and right of the stage.

The three groups of pictures were:

Group 1: Fleur, Ben, and Andrea
Group 2: Stereo Kicks, Paul, and Jay
Group 3: Only the Young, Stevi, and Lauren

Now look at the order in which the contestants were called safe:

Stereo Kicks
Fleur East
Ben Haenow
Andrea Faustini
Lauren Platt
Stevi Ritchie
Only the Young

Bottom 2: Paul and Jay

Notice anything weird?

Stereo Kicks was called first and appeared with the Bottom 2 contestants Jay and Paul (Group 1) [ie: first contestant and last contestants called safe]. Fleur, Ben, and Andrea were called safe second, third, and fourth and were all in Group 2. Finally, Lauren, Stevi, and Only the Young were called safe fifth, sixth, and seventh and were all part of Group 3.

Here is a graphic of the pictures with the numbers for when the contestants were called safe. http://postimg.org/image/q7dzbgm6z/

Not sure what to make of this (ie: is it related to the actual voting results?), but I found it to be a weird coincidence.

I will have to take a look at past shows to see if the pattern holds.

Yes I totally agree. I noticed this too. But I didn't think anything of it, maybe just nothing. But now you mention it, yh I totally agree with you. Let me know if you see the same thing on other shows.

I tape the main show and tape the results show (so I can fast forward the ads, and special guests if it's someone I'm not bothered about). I usually watch the main show on Sunday and results on Monday.

Watching back the results show, the first thing I noticed in the intro was Dermot walking forward with pictures of Paul and Jay behind him - the two in the sing off

I didn't really noticed the rest of the pictures.

kickawesomekris, let us know what you notice about the previous weeks - if you can find out

Another to add to the conspiracy thread

Wow that's quite investigative

My theory is that Andrea, Ben & Lauren have big core fanbases and are easily getting through

Then you have Fleur, Jay, Only The young next just making it above bottom 2

Then Stevi & Stereo Kicks are flipping between the 2, depending if they are / close to the pimp slot

I wonder where the paul votes will go to.

it seems most of them like lauren

My Paul votes will now go to Fleur, so there's 5 extra from me each week.

Maybe it's cos it's early but I'm really not seeing the relevance of this "pattern" at all. Seems a load of rubbish to me.

My god, I know the X Factor is staged but some of the conspiracy theories on here make me chuckle

The only thing that i would say is a good indicator is the running order.

[quote=Jenny_Hanlon;75584473]My Paul votes will now go to Fleur, so there's 5 extra from me each week.[/QUO
I am not voting anymore (loyal Paul fan). Have deleted the app from phone and tablet, and I wouldn't waste a phone vote on any that's left in.

[quote=flowerlady;75585719]
I wasn't going to bother either but my free votes are going to Stevi....don't mind wasting my free votes.

What would displaying the pictures like that achieve though? They're already got the results, so you can't claim it's for subliminal manipulation purposes. And is this a pattern? Has it happened in previous shows in a strange way? Because you can't really claim anything meaningful if it just happened to happen on this one show.

Honestly I think you're reading waaaay too deep into this.

[quote=Jenny_Hanlon;75584473]My Paul votes will now go to Fleur, so there's 5 extra from me each week.[/QUO
I am not voting anymore (loyal Paul fan). Have deleted the app from phone and tablet, and I wouldn't waste a phone vote on any that's left in.

That's interesting, what about the week before's results? It might be worth checking to see if it was merely a coincidence, or a freudian slip from the production team who know how the voting stands.

It wouldn't be totally crazy to suggest it was a subliminal clue they do every week though, remember in Dragons Den when they used to edit the show every week so a Dragon would always invest in the last invention before the program ended? It was so stupid and predictable yet they did it for about 3 series. In the end it took someone writing into the Radio Times about it to get it fixed. (Not me by the way)

I just checked the previous two shows and there was nothing in either of those two. I think it's probably just a really interesting coincidence.

I think you're right, if they did it every week I'm sure someone would have noticed it by now. It's just strange that out of nine acts, the two in the sing off take centre stage on the screens behind

Just out of curiosity, next week I'll be looking to see if it happens again - take note of the two pictures immediately behind Dermot. If they aren't in the sing off, we can throw another conspiracy theory out of the window

[quote=flowerlady;75585719]
Agree

Nothing very subliminal about the 2 giant pictures in the middle of the stage being the 2 in the sing off .... Thats about as subtle as a brick in the face lol