He was in the Top 5 for the first 4 weeks, and astoundingly dropped to 9th during Week 5, which I can only presume is due to songs that didn't suit him and his early performance slot.

Week 1 - 3rd 10.0%
Week 2 - 3rd 9.9%
Week 3 - 4th 9.4%
Week 4 - 5th 9.5%
Week 5 - 9th 8.1% (same percentage as Jay)

He even beat Fleur for the first 4 weeks and Ben in the first 2 weeks. Not sure why him and Jay had the same percentage published in the official statistics - why didn't they be more precise? I smell a bit of a fix if you ask me.

Yup

There were two acts that stood in the way of Simon Cowell's acts being centre stage from the get go...Paul & Andrea.

Conveniently they just so happened to be the two who were attacked by Simon Cowell even with Cowell admitting "I can't fault the vocals" but he still found reason to complain about them.

He wonders why the majority of his acts come off without credibility.

Disgraceful and almost implausible to drop to bottom place like that very odd indeed

Always knew it was a fix, least he can shine away from it

I liked Paul a lot, but he was never going to win if he couldn't overcome an early performance slot and a negative VT. On the whole, his fanbase wasn't loyal enough. He was treated the worst out of all the finalists by far, but the show can only do so much. His votes seem to suggest that, like Andrea, people were beginning to get a bit bored of him anyway (or that he was failing to gain new support at the rate the other acts were). Week 5 just seemed to tip things over the edge.

Paul was a great singer unfortunately he became under scrutiny and wasn't the makings of a X factor pop star but he could have a fab career away from there I see him as Sam smith route.

Lauren did very well in the votes and would actually have been in the final ahead of Andrea. She could have challenged Fleur for second place.

The worst decision of the entire series letting him go. I felt so sorry for him, being screwed over again.

I think if that shows anything, is that he didnt really gain or lose many fans. His % from week one to the week he went only fell by 2%. If anything it shows how close the competition was.

He was boring. He lasted about as long as you would expect. He maybe deserved another week (he was better than Jay James, for sure), but he was never going to go much further.

If his fans had voted for him, he would have stayed. The show didn't pimp him, but he was certainly treated no worse than a lot of other acts (and better than some).

If he has the makings of a star, perhaps he will succeed outside the show. I didn't see anything interesting in him, but maybe it just didn't come across on the TV. Good luck to him.

Not sure I find this that strange. So he started at 10% and over the weeks kept losing voters till he was at 8% and lowest. Not that much of a drop, and hardly enough to say it's improbable or fixed. Not enough that I'd say 'it must be a conspiracy'.

I'm glad you noticed...youre just a bit late to the party and the party is over...

Two things:

1 - His voting percentages barely changed. It's possible that he wasn't losing voters, but that as others dropped out he didn't get their voters for whatever reason.

2 - Nobody has the right to success in a show like this. It's an entertainment show that verges on scripted reality at times. By taking the shortcut you're opening yourself up to becoming a storyline. He refused to grasp this and I've never seen such a silly reaction.

Paul is a brilliant singer and should have got further in the competition but he was so boring. I can't remember any 'moments' he had or anything about him

Whereas Haenow is a superstar right?

You are wrong, his percentages DID drop considerably, even if the numbers look similar. This is because he was getting higher percentages when there were more people which means he was getting alot of votes. The fact that his percentage did not increase towards the end shows that he was getting less votes when there were less people, which is not at all impressive compared to getting more votes when there's more people.

Paul was never going to win the X Factor, his face didn't fit. And anyhow he is going to be better for not winning the show Have you seen the list of ex winners that have either been dropped or left?

Winning is a bad thing!

I don't think it's got anything to do with his fans not voting for him. Simon implied he was acting difficult and ungrateful and was taking the place of someone who really wanted to be there. That is one of the most damming things you can say to an act on the show. They have used that tactic before to get contestants out.

He was portrayed in a very negative light but still.... I never saw his appeal anyway. Nevertheless I do pity the guy for not making it to the tour. At the time didn't one of the producers tweet that they would 'see what they could do' (perhaps with hindsight due to the tiny difference between him and Jay?).. Have any more tweets been made about Paul making the tour or was it a false hope?

If his fans had voted more for him, he would have stayed. That's how the show works.

His voting numbers gradually decreased as people got bored with him (much the same as with Andrea) – they're hardly evidence of some vast conspiracy against him.

If only Paul fans had been as committed to supporting him when he was on the show as they are to trying to find people to blame for him going, he probably would have lasted a couple more weeks!


The acts on the tour have been officially announced. He's not on it. I don't think it was ever likely to happen.

Thanks, I didn't think so as it would set a precedent. Ah well, he's had his 5 minutes of fame.

I may be wrong, but I think it has happened once or twice in the past actually. If they thought Paul would drive ticket sales, they probably would have let him in. But that was never terribly likely to be the case.

Paul was my favourite, the sabotage started with the not so subtle suggestion from Cowell that he was boring, I think the response to him at the arena audition showed them he might be an early favourite. Of course they know the voting figures, what leaves a really bad taste is how his mentor helped throw him under the bus, and Paul could see it as well.

They dealt with Andrea by giving him ballads every week.

I found the manipulation blatant this series, but then it worked, so Paul lost support thanks to bad song choices and negative videos. When Only The Young wanted to change songs they were allowed to and not portrayed negatively.

I understand where people are coming from with Paul and Lauren in terms of being screwed over but Andrea really. No doubt he went down the popularity charts with the producers but he wasnt targeted like the other 2

But he was boring. Why shouldn't Simon be allowed to say what he and lots of other people were thinking?

If there was such a vast conspiracy by the X Factor against Paul, as Paul supporters seem to be suggesting, why was it that he was selected for the live shows this year despite being rejected last year because he was boring?