[Z]

I'd just like to elaborate on my original post 'cause I wasn't online for this weekend's shows.

I've been thinking for a while now that Janet's been receiving the Mary treatment of last year. She always seems to be left towards the end to be announced through to the next week's show (I did a huge post about how they did this to Mary last year) to give off an impression that she's in trouble of going. It subconsciously undermines public confidence in an act, definitely. The judges criticised her into straying away from what she feels comfortable doing (like they did with Mary) and then criticised her for not doing what it was that we all fell in love with her for (her original style, just like they did with Mary.) Both of them started out as huge fan favourites because of their impressive audition, and then both were sabotaged by the show because neither of them were the most commercially viable artist in their respective series. I could see Janet being voted out from a mile off, it was very obvious from very early on in the competition. Kelly Rowland's preferential treatment of Misha, despite the public not taking to her, bears so many similarities to Cheryl Cole ignoring Rebecca in favour of Cher. In terms of future success, post X Factor, both Cheryl and Kelly's support was/is rightly placed - Misha is far more exciting to watch than Janet and is more likely to put out music that will appeal to the masses than Janet will; much like Cher/Rebecca, but both Janet and Rebecca appeal to a niche and both had much more popularity in the competition than Misha/Cher, who both got tarred with the "brat" brush.

Little Mix very sensibly performed a Justin Bieber/Christina Aguilera 1-2-punch. While it might have been a little bit lacklustre, it will more than definitely secure the teenage girl vote. What young girl nowadays isn't obsessed with Justin Bieber? Little Mix have gotten this far through their inoffensive dress sense and likeability, and they're capitalising on that by singing a song by someone who has captured the minds of their target audience, extremely sensible song choice there. They then followed that up with an anthem for everyone who has ever felt out of place, and again it connected with the whole "Jesy is slagged off for being fat and it's unfair" thing I mentioned in my OP - I wouldn't be surprised if they've stolen a lot of votes off of Janet's fanbase this week and for the rest of the competition.

Marcus is still the darkhorse (though also probably the obvious favourite to win) - he's still putting in pretty good performances but has yet to have that outstanding moment. Alexandra Burke left it pretty late in the competition to have her moment, though, so there's still time for Marcus to do it and be recognised as the deserving winner. At this stage it's between him and Little Mix to win.

Misha was extremely good at the weekend and, despite her numerous bottom two appearances, she definitely deserved to stay over Janet, even if the actual circumstances were grossly unfair on Janet. I'd imagine the running order for next week's show will be Amelia on first and Misha either 3rd or 4th. The producers won't want Amelia in the final because it'll undermine the credibility of the show to have her there. They'll be expecting an Amelia vs Misha bottom two but they'll advertise it as a "vote to send to the final" and get her there so she can have her duet with whoever they have in mind for her. Amelia can't do anything right so she may as well just lap up the praise while she can and get thinking about the future - finishing 4th isn't bad at all, considering if she'd been put through over Sophie she'd probably have gone the same week Sophie went! Ironically, it'll probably still be Misha who knocks her out of the competition, so I guess her fate was inevitable anyway. That's my take!