Oh brilliant, every year the Sun do their best to trash a contestant, and people still buy in to it.

1) Can he sing? - Yes.

2) Will he win? - No idea at the moment.

3) Does his backstory matter? - Only if you are too gullible not to realise that this entire program is built on dishonesty.

The Sun would do better to investigate, why the auditions were re-mixed, why last night there was manipulation of the sound and backing, why most of the contestants are music industry rejects and not talented people who have just walked in off the road. Those are the real issues.

Take the useless rag down the bottom of the garden and burn it.

I agree - this comes across as a desperate attempt to slow down his projectile. The producers must be panicking

Can't argue with any of that, i think you're right on all accounts.

This is what I hate about The XFactor. They have been waiting on this story! Now they want rid of Anton, or to make him less popular,. They put an article in on Monday morning. Probably got another story on him for Saturday morning, to really put the boot in. I am sure they put contestants through for headlines as well as entertainment..

Are there still some people out there that they believe anything that is written in The Sun? It is a paper made up of fantasy stories, and not fit for purpose other than chip paper.

I haven't read The Sun story but wasn't there a similar thing with Matt Cardle, he said he had taken in a family or been taken in or something sad, and there were stories that he had made it up?

They may not wait until Saturday. If he's leading the vote for example, they may get a few more stories in before Saturday to try to derail him. I think they had high hopes for AU but that's gone pear shaped. Now they want to protect Louisa. I haven't got a favorite but I hope Anton is ahead by a mile.

Reminds me of Tesco Mary - who despite the efforts to sabotage her still beat One Direction in the public vote most weeks. Who knows what might have become of her had she had 1 per cent of the support from Cowell which 1D did.

Wrong place wrong time - Cowell didn't need another Susan Boyle.

Who cares? It's completely irrelevant. It's like when they ruined Misha B's chances when Tulisa and Louis were absolutely vile towards her with their comments...it was completely uncalled for and there was no need.

Hmmm. From Popbitch earlier this week:

The whole idea of this series was to seem younger and cooler (hence the Grimmy/Rita reboot) but it's the stories of the oldies that have seemed to go over best with the audience.

Plans are geared towards a young winner this year, so which "overs" did they pick? Max, as early cannon fodder; Bupsi, this year's take on Wagner; and Anton. Anton might make for good TV, but we're told he's slated to take the Maloney position. And if he looks to be challenging a more youthful winner? Word is they have enough ammo to take him out.

Hav to say I have no idea why Bupsi was put through in the first pLACE

Makes me so mad when stories start to come out, the papers always seem to go out their way with X factor contestants, has he killed anyone?? No, so just leave the poor guy alone, there's reasons for everything we do in our lives, the papers lie all the time, believe me I know

What you have to remember is that along with Strictly, X Factor has a large audience. Strictly has very little room for tabloid fodder but X Factor ........ It's all about selling newspapers. If the program only had a million viewers they would not bother. A good example is Big Brother. In it's heyday of 7,000, 000 viewers the Sun used to print the most outrageous stories. The only rag that can be bothered now is the Star.

Well X factor have their own press office and I think leak a lot too for the ratings

Music industry rejects that's a bit harsh, a lot just don't know how to get their foot in the door, the music industry is very up and down plus there's a lot of talent out there, that's how a lot don't make it, it's a harsh business, and so hard to break into so that's why contestants turn to X factor. Yes a lot were scouted but I don't blame them, half of this years contestants probably wouldn't of bothered auditioning if they had to do it off their own bat, because it's daunting, but when approached to do it then it makes you think that you may stand a better chance of getting far, I agree with most of the post besides that

yes that was disgusting she ended up bottom 3 two weeks in a row after that, she was getting good votes and they didnt have her down as the winner, i dont really know why i keep watching, i know its all fake and manipulated but i keep hoping against hope that somehow a good genuine one like monica will win it.

Well it was in The Sun so it must be true !

Sabotage..... The Sun is Cowells mouthpiece.

I doubt Tesco Mary would have made a 1/10000000 of what 1D have made for Cowell

No doubt but that doesn't mean she deserved the way she was stitched up.

Believe me, I wasn't a fan at all and she isn't to my taste but she was absolutely screwed over by TPTB because they saw Cher Lloyd and 1D as cash cows.

I take it anton topped the voting poll then

Never liked the man from day one, and not in the least bit surprised to hear that he is reported to have been providing a false back story. I get the impression that he is the type of individual that will do almost anything to get his own way . Hopefully he will soon be dumped out of the competition and disappear back into obscurity.

Guys I do know The Sun has a close relationship with Cowell and this "leak" isn't just by coincidence. That said, it seems like such an unbelieveable thing to lie about, and I wouldn't expect even them to make something like this up.

He comes across as desperate to me. It looked like he was praying before his name was called in the results show. Although he has a good voice, I thought he sounded horrendous singing Dance With My Father - the song didn't suit him at all.
Do I think he is a star? No. Do I think he could win? No.

Seems she's done ok though

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Byrne_(singer)