Was it since the tesco Mary year a semi sing off was introduced and it was introduced after the show begun on the results Sunday I seem to remember.

Still gives them the final bit of leeway and it's stayed ever since

i dont get this "the public cant be trusted"

cant be trusted to do what exactly ?

the public will vote for whoever they think is best and that is their right, whether you agree or disagree with who they vote for is irrelevant

all having a sing-off at this stage does is keep an element of control with the producers, they have zero right or expectation to have earned the public's trust, and trust should be a two-way street

I do think having a sing off at final 4 is ridiculous as a contestant could come 3rd in the vote and still be booted out of the final. Happened with last year's Lauren and I'm confident it will happen with this year's Lauren.

The public cannot be trusted though, hence why Wagna made it so far.

There is a reason why there are professionals in the music industry

of coarse they can't be trusted, watch last weeks results for confirmation

I think that claim got lost after last week.

no it didn't

the public will vote for who they think did best

you may not agree with the decision but thats the way it works , votes count , people vote for different reasons and the vast majority of voters couldn't give a toss about conspiracy theories or who might or might or might not do well after the show

thats why i asked the question "trusted to do what?"

no-one is under any obligation to vote based on technical ability or what you like or what i like or what SYCO might want or based on who is commercial, for the majority of people its a TV reality show, thats it

I respect people that disagree with me on performances if they are actually judging it on the performances.

But I'm sorry I do not buy for one second that anyone thought that Che or Louisa was better than the bottom two last week, they voted for them though because of the songs that they sung because they personally like the original versions of the songs, and because they felt empathy for them for being terrible in that week.

Every show should be down to the public vote no sing off is needed just get rid of the one with the lowest amount of votes it should never be up to the judges to save anyone it is the judges who can't be trusted.

dont you think its incredibly arrogant for you to say that all the thousands of people who voted got it wrong just because they didn't vote the way you wanted them to or thought they should ?

btw i am not saying they got it right or wrong , to me all of the acts left last week were much of a muchness when it comes to mediocrity so i dont really care either way

The public can't be trusted no - Reggie and Bollie, tesco Mary, Chris Maloney Jedward list goes on

Proper singers get kicked out in favour of these novelty acts and it's so unfair

No because it was incredibly unprofessional to vote someone through that couldn't remember his lyrics for a whole minute, and then on my own personal feelings is that Louisa butchered Love Yourself so that one also bugs me.

But yes I think it's right to condemn the public for saving someone that forgot the lyrics over two people that could remember theirs, and sung their songs well by this series standards in my view.

who said the voting public need to be "professional" , its a light entertainment TV show , a bit of fun on a saturday night

i'll re-ask my question that you haven't answered , who said the public have any obligation to vote based on technical ability or a one-off performance that went badly or commercial reasons

by this stage of the competition most people will have their favourite, based on a couple of months worth of performances and wont change their mind because they forgot the lyrics on one song

is there some sort of rule that before people vote they have to sign a disclaimer agreeing not to vote for anyone who forgot their lyrics

Louisa murdered love yourself it was really bad yet she got through so maybe Lauren will to coz IMO she only had 1 bad performance and it was not as bad as Louisa's last week

I don't care about commercial reasons when watching The X Factor, I mainly care about entertainment and as long as the acts aren't despicable Human Beings I'll even let them pass for being slightly annoying as long as they give out strong performances in my eyes.

However I don't get people that judge the acts on the night before they've even listened to their performance on the night, so what's the point of having these extra Live Shows if people are not gonna judge on the night but judge on who they've liked before then?

And to me Che has been dreadful since the very start so Hello isn't a rare occurrence to me.

and there we get to the crux of your problem

it basically comes down to the usual argument that you cant understand why people like different things to you so they must be wrong ...

No because I've not once complained on here that the public were wrong to vote Che or Louisa through in the other weeks, but when they're exceptionally dreadful, one of them forgets the lyrics, and then they beat two people who had good nights in the vote then yes it's wrong to vote that way and I would say that if it was my favourite as first and foremost I'm a fan of the competition more than I am being biased towards certain contestants.

Are you saying the public vote should be stopped altogether?

That was nothing.

The final 5 in 2012 left a hell of a lot to be desired once the public voted out all the genuinely talented singers in the first half of the live shows.

I'd always choose fantastic vocal talent over silly/slightly amusing entertainment. Sadly the public clearly didn't that year.

If this question is being directed at me then my answer is no, but I do wish that the public would vote better.

It's not that the audience can't be trusted - it's that Cowell likes to fix the results to have his suited final.

That Mary / Cher fiasco was one of the most appalling things I've ever seen a television show get away with. How they weren't fined is beyond me.

I much preferred when the Top 5 went straight down to the public vote.

I don't necessarily think the public "can't be trusted", I mean yes they make awful choices for who they vote for (last week being a prime example). But my gripe with a sing-off in the final is that there just shouldn't be one, at this point we're voting for someone to win basically and if you're bottom of the vote you shouldn't be in the final, whoever is 3rd in the vote deserves to be in the TOP 3.

This is what annoyed me last year, yes Andrea had a great voice but he was bottom of the vote, Lauren may have stood a stronger chance of winning because we know she polled higher in the votes when it counted even if she wasn't immediately safe like Ben and Fleur.

Totally agree with you. I will vote for who I like the best.