......................Get over it and let Strictly take over by being real!

If I had a £ for the times it's been said X factor is fixed I'd be a millionaire.

Fixed how? The voting isn't fixed whatsoever.

You say that but Louise is under marked every week.

Sometimes the show is fixed for the correct reasons. Ray Quinn beating Leona would've been an absolute car crash.

Besides, Danny has already won SCD 2016. We're just waiting for Tess to state the obvious in 2 weeks time.

Not literally fixed, but certainly heavily manipulated. If you're saying it started with Leona, I would agree.

Not fixed no, but manipulated as hell yes. Nikita in Leona's year was far more interesting, but she was stitched up and given the worst song choices in the history of the show.

Yes, I much preferred Nikitta too.

I think you meant overmarked. Easy mistake so your forgiven.

I stopped watching after series 3 for exactly that reason. It was shameful. They took out any decent talent so you were left with karaoke Ray. Leona is talented but the manipulation was off the scale. Bizarrely it'd been there since series 1 with Simon wanting Steve to win. More to do with his court case over copying Pop Idol though.

I look in here occasionally and it just seems dead. Nobody seriously seems to care about the singers as a talent for after series.

I really liked Robert that series but they threw him under s bus after he dared give a few decent performances. They pushed him so far down the village idiot route, he might as well have come on stage dressed as a jester

I'd forgotten about Robert. Yes, I liked him too.

Yes. It was a fix when Ms Lewis won.

How do we know that. There are never any figures during the series.

Under marked.

Because after the voting scandals, the one thing you can be assured of is that the vote is accurate.

If there is any fixing with the votes going on, then it will be exposed, as these things always have a way of coming out in the wash.

I detest her singing, I am sure she is a lovely person, but I find her singing to me lacks any personality at all. I am probably also the only person who hates her version of Run.., I know that Snow Patrol are not the most exciting group in the world but compared to Ms Lewis!!

There isn't. They can do what else they want to manipulate things but they can't control voting numbers.

You are not the only person.

I dont really think they could really do anything with the the Voting either, but they do definitely manipulate things. There is no way that Simon is leaving this decision up to the general public. I am sure that he knows who he wants to win long before the show actually airs, there is no way they pick someone straight off the streets, he has people scouring for months.

Do you think he wanted Ben Haenow to win? Because I don't think he did, yet he won easily.

I never said it was a fool proof system!!!

Very true. You can influence voters as much as you like but sometimes it doesn't work.

In the majority of cases, X Factor is Simon's test run to see how 'popular' some acts would be with the public. A lot of acts are now asked to apply for the X Factor so they're often seen as having potential but it's a way of trying them out without risking a lot of money.

They can't fix it because they would get into a lot of trouble but they can and have heavily manipulated the show to favour certain acts. This season has been particularly interesting as the show seemed geared in Matt's favour but now he's been dropped faster than a hot potato and 5AM seem to be the new 'chosen' ones.