It has invariably been a straight viewers vote. Top 3 to go to the final.

I can only remember a sing off once before.

This was so that Cowell could have One Direction in the final instead of Tesco Mary who actually had more votes.

Is he intent on dragging his girl to the final ?

One Direction were never in a sing off.

It was Cher Lloyd they shoehorned in

I can't remember if they had one last year - and I'm not sure if Andrea got to the final via a sing off? But I can remember Luke v Rough Copy and he got the bounce whereas they were coming down from the week before

The last time they didn't have a sing-off was 2012

I miss when they ditched the sing off at F5.

Would have loved to see Mary Byrne perform with will.i.am

They introduced the sing-off in the Semi-Final when they wanted to save Cher over Mary and I think it has stuck ever since. It is just a safety net to get the acts they need.

Ridiculous, but what can we do...

I used to quite like the top 5 being straight down to the public vote.

Think they have had the sing off in semi for about five years now

There's been a sing-off in the semi-final in 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2015. Since it's happened for the last 3 years it's hardly surprising it happens again this year

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Ahem.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Been a sing=off ever since they rigged it for Tesco Mary to go

Really don't think it right in semis. Should be public votes now. But then they won't get who they want in final.

They didn't have a semi final sing off in Little Mix's year !

There was no sing off in 2012 either - it was based on the public votes only. If there had been a sing off it Chris and Union J would have ended up in it and it would have been the perfect chance for the judges to get rid of Chris since Louis, Tulisa and Nicole criticized his performances almost every week.

Yes they had a sing-off in semi final both last year are 2014. Lauren Murray vs Che Chesterman were in sing-off in semi final last year with Che making the final. It was Lauren Platt vs Andrea Faustini in sing-off in semi final 2014 with Andrea making final however based on result figures it should have been Lauren who should have made the final as she polled higher than Andrea in semi-final.

I won't forget that, they planned for Lauren going home before she'd even competed in the Sing-off even though she rightfully should have went through. Last year Che had more votes so it's not as bad even though I'd rather have seen Lauren Murray there instead.

Sorry....You are correct.

There was the time with Mary vs Cher, but I think the time they brought it in on an annual basis was in series 10 because they didn't like the fact that Christopher Maloney stopped Union J from making the final the year before.

Your the first person to call 5AM that!

The final 5 acts in 2012 were diabolical with James Arthur the best by default.

Why bother having a sing off between Union J and Christopher when they were both crap. Ok, Union J had a (sort of) career off the back of the show but they were always Instant One Direction; just add water.

I thought this I don't remember a series though where there wasn't a sing off in the S Final

On the chart show that lauren appeared in she said she went to an evening meal at Cheryls just before the semis. Lauren said that it seemed like a celebration meal for her achievements and like a farewell like they both knew she was going.

Im there watching thinking "LAUREN OF COURSE CHERYL KNOWS, SHE WAS TOLD"