[Jack_]

Originally Posted by NingleBells

Well, Louis did say on a radio show in Ireland that the viewers would be deciding this week and they no longer had a say.

Louis is Louis, let's not take anything he says as gospel now...

Originally Posted by NingleBells

But anyway, I think for alot of people it's not just this one thing though, it's yet another rule twist and manipulation to get what they want. In my eyes this show is supposed to be about what the public want but it seems the judges are happy to take the publics money but then basically say ****** you we'll do what we want anyway.

Well, technically the public will get what they want in the end - they're going to pick the eventual winner. So it's not all doom and gloom.

All TV shows similar to this are all manipulated to some extent anyway, in order to engineer results and certain scenarios which will benefit the show in various ways - be it profit, media attention or viewer satisfaction, etc etc. Some of it is subtle, other bits are quite obvious. But it's generally always there, whether it's editing contestants in a good or bad light, structuring a certain performance order, even more subliminal things such as referring to certain contestants more, praising them more or even the other way round. It happens on most TV shows - Big Brother, X Factor, IAC. A large majority of it will all be done for viewer satisfaction, some of it will be done to ensure more profit, whilst other bits will be to attract media attention. If people fall for all of this, it's their problem...but then again, that is sort of the point. At the end of the day - if people don't like this sort of manipulation which occurs on most TV shows, be it minor or major - then they shouldn't watch, or shouldn't vote.

I have to say though, thinking about it, I don't think this could've been a last minute decision, as there are only a couple of people who know the voting percentages each week. And none of these people are part of the production team, and none of these people are any of the Judges or presenters [yes, that inclues Simon]. They're independent adjudicators. So it's not at all possible, really, that anyone would've known that Cher would be bottom. So I imagine the only realistic scenario would've been that the sing-off was acting as a safety net, incase the outcome occured, which it did.