Lorna gone, but flash vote not the answer to improve X Factor

The reason behind adding the flash vote to the X Factor seems fairly obvious. By revealing the act with the lowest number of votes after only 10 minutes of the lines becoming open, the target is to attract a bigger audience to the live show.

After all, many fans will watch the repeat on Sunday afternoon or will record the live show to view at a more convenient time before the airing of the results show (probably so they can fast-forward the countless advertising breaks).

By doing either of these two things, this section of voters could already find their favoured act confirmed in the sing-off before they have even seen them perform.

Shelley Smith found herself the victim of the flash vote in the first live show, but ended up being saved in the sing-off at the expense of fellow Sharon Osbourne act Lorna Simpson, who we said would be eliminated first here.

With one of the acts in the sing-off already known, not is it grossly unfair on their rival in this position, who has nowhere close to the same amount of time to mentally prepare, but it also starves the results show of most of its tension.

This change to the voting system also rules out the threat of deadlock if the sing-off contestants score two votes each from the judges.

Although, this enabled the judges a bit of a cop out, deadlock did drum up a bit of intrigue and drama. This is no longer the case as a 2-2 vote from the judges means that it will be act placed in the sing off through the flash vote that is sent home.

Sam Callaghan and Kingsland Road may have the most to gain from the flash voting strategy, as teenage girls are their leading target audience and they are likely to represent a decent portion of the audience watching live shows.

Therefore, it may be wise to ignore them for the time being to be the second act eliminated, with Sam currently 7/1 in the X Factor odds and Kingsland Road 10/1.

It is Miss Dynamix that are the early favourites in this market at 7/4.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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