[Z]

I'm not surprised Craig went out this weekend, though it is a shame on him that he went at this stage. In any other year, (and please forgive me for being so blunt, I'm only doing so in terms of what the X Factor presents) the fat boy with the good voice would be perceived as a novelty act of sorts and he'd make it mid way (or, well, about as far as he actually did) without being considered a favourite. He's picking up 'cute' votes that would otherwise go to a Lloyd Daniels type of contestant. Frankie sort of had that fan base covered, but he's actually not very good looking so I guess a lot of that got siphoned off onto Craig. Marcus, though not bad looking, doesn't really fit the role of the cute, boyish one either, and he's actually a very good singer. Usually you have the teenage male eye candy contestant who makes it quite far, but not this year, which is why I think Craig managed to go as far as he did. Although it was his first time in the bottom two and nobody knows what his support was like, it would have been a stretch of the imagination to call him a favourite to win at any point.

Amelia's been shot in the foot by the X Factor. It's not her fault that Kelly Rowland put her out, it's not her fault that Frankie took cocaine, it's not her fault that she was contractually obliged to reappear on the X Factor (I assume she was obliged to anyway?!) and be put up for the public vote to return, and it's not her fault that she's starting out again way behind all of the other contestants. Gary accused her of shouting - while I think he was just fighting dirty, it does raise a good point that Amelia's had way less time to acclimatise to performing live, week in, week out. She's facing the naysayers who think it's unfair she's even in the competition, which is not her fault. If the judges had put her out, it would have been yet another blow to the poor girl, again through no fault of her own, and it would have made the show look ridiculous for putting her back in, just to put her back out again. If she stayed (which she did), it's unfair on whoever goes out (Craig) and she's likely to receive some of the backlash by association. She can literally do nothing right, because of the producers, and considering how good a singer she is, that's just not right at all. If she reaches the final, she and the show look like a joke - if she goes out, it's a waste of everybody's time.

Janet was bigged up as the early favourite and I think the judges have been doing their absolute best to undermine her. Kelly Rowland is doing her best at a sabotage job, doing exactly what Cheryl did to Rebecca Ferguson last year, she can't see the wood for the trees and is entirely neglecting her only realistic hope of winning the show. Janet's been mistreated throughout the competition and she'll be lucky to salvage the victory through all of this mishandling. I kind of hope she doesn't win it though, I think she'd only continue to be abused through SyCo and it would leave her highly depressed, she seems like a very introverted person and I don't think she could handle it at all well.

Misha's bad attitude is not appealing to the public and, while I do think Kelly's faith in her is justifiable, I don't think there's much point in trying to big her up any more. Ideally, Amelia will finish in 5th place and Misha will crash out in 4th - high enough up to give her a launch pad onto a further career - Cher Lloyd's managing it so far. Misha is very talented and the effort she's put into her performances so far show that she could feasibly be a pop star. Plenty of pop stars are assholes, but most of them mask it when they're in the public eye. Misha doesn't have the luxury of being able to let her mask slip while she's on the X Factor, and unfortunately for her, she didn't even try to hide her bad traits to begin with, and so by the time it got criticised on the live shows, it was far too late for her to turn it around. I noticed it straight away on live show 1, and I think it was show 2 that Tulisa called her out on it, and I really do think that the judges can sway public perception a ridiculous amount. It'd be a farce if Kelly cheated Misha into the final, so my sincere hope is that they don't do a Cher/Mary situation again this year. I hate the idea of Marcus, Little Mix or Janet missing out because of Kelly Rowland's weird obsession with Misha.

Marcus is, IMO, taking the Alexandra Burke route through the votes. He probably started out mid-table and, as the weeks went by, consistently put in good performances and so consistently did well in the votes. He was probably around 7th in week 1 and is probably hitting 2nd/3rd most weeks now. If he finally pulls an incredible, performance of the night performance out of the bag - his timing will be impeccable and he might go on to steal the win. He's being downplayed as the dark horse and rightly so - he's inoffensive but consistently good. I just worry that that has Joe McElderry stamped all over it. But, then again, Marcus is evidently a good dancer and has been putting on fairly impressive performances, he's not been standing there giving an impeccable vocal and not much else every week.

Little Mix are constantly worrying me. Just because of the track record of groups on the X Factor, I'm convinced they'll dip into the bottom two and be kicked out by Kelly Rowland/the show's fix for Misha, but they've reached the top 5 without hitting the bottom two once and I think it would be an absolute outrage if they went out now. I've long said that Simon Cowell wants to launch a girl group off the back of the X Factor. The way he kept pushing Hope down our throats several years ago says as much, to me. Little Mix's success, IMO, can be attributed to the fact that girls don't see them as threatening (not coming out dressed like hookers, having a slightly bigger one who's been getting mean comments in the press and the others consoling her and telling her she's pretty too blah blah - they're not bitches, basically, and are being portrayed as a tight unit), the fact they've gotten their act together pretty quickly while plenty of other acts in the competition have spent weeks trying to get it right (Janet, Craig, Kitty...) and the fact that nobody else has been shining week in, week out. The playing field is pretty much level (Janet misfiring, Marcus being good but not great, Craig being boring, Misha being undermined by being perceived as a bitch, Amelia having the controversy of returning surrounding her) and so Little Mix are perhaps the first group since JLS to have a real shot at winning this whole thing. I really, really hope they go on and do it, they would benefit the most from winning the X Factor!

[Niamh.]

That was a great read Greg. I think you have it all spot on. I do think Little Mix will go far regardless of when they go out, at this stage. Janet is my favourite and I do hope she wins, more as a **** you to the hatchet job the producers and even her own mentor are trying to pull, but maybe you're right and that wouldn't be the best thing for her. I wouldn't be upset if either Marcus or Little Mix won either

[Z]

I think the thing is that all three of them (Janet, Little Mix and Marcus) are equally deserving of the win, so as long as they make up the final, I don't mind who wins. Misha is undeniably good, perhaps even better than all three of them, but she doesn't deserve to be in the final at all. Amelia's been screwed over by the show but I really don't think she'd have made it this far in the first place, and I definitely don't think she'd have made the final if she'd been there from the get go.

[MusicXian]

Yeah I love Janet but Im not sure I want her to fall in Syco's hands. Little Mix to win it.

[Niamh.]

Yeah, Amelia is good but not that good. She probably should have been put through over Sophie originally but I don't think she would have lasted any longer, if she had been. Misha I do think is very talented but she's not endeared herself at all to the public and tbh that "emotional scene" we were fed with Kelly and herself was a joke, I hate that people actually bought it and voted for her (why do I watch this ****? )

[joeysteele]

After reading that, I think Mr Cowell should sign up Zee for the panel of the next series of X Factor. An excellent post.

[MusicXian]

Zee is too normal to be on the panel and makes too much sense.

[Z]

Hahahah thanks Joey and MusicXian!!

[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!

[Mystic Mock]

I think if Amelia was in it at the start I think she would have still hit the bottom two in week 7.

[Marc]

If Littlemix aren't bottom two this coming weekend then I'll be surprised, but I think they may reach the final and come third. They need to pull out something big this weekend to stay out of the bottom two and force Amelia in there instead.

Misha will definitely be bottom two.

[Kate!]

Enjoyed reading that Zee, and your follow up post as well, very eloquent and right on the money. With particular reference to Janet, in hindsight it's probably the best thing that could have happened for her at that stage of the competition, could well be a blessing in disguise, she certainly isn't cut out to be a Syco puppet. Hope she signs a deal soon.

My ideal final would have been Marcus, Little Mix and Janet, happy for it to be Amelia though. Think it's grossly unfair if Misha gets through at the expense of any of them really, and won't do the show any favours with the fans, Misha clearly has least support and without judges save would have gone long since.

I suspect they have the finalists duets lined up and regardless of what the public want, Misha will be there. Was there any mention by Dermot last week of whether it's just down to public vote for the semi final? Don't recall it. Wouldn't put it past them to decide last minute what to do, depending on whether Misha is bottom of the votes, which is rather unethical imo. We voters are the ones who spend the money, they shouldn't be allowed to manipulate it to get the result they want. This show is going to the dogs.