Merseyside vote why Kiera Weathers won’t leave X Factor yet

When it comes to regional voting on the X Factor, there is one location that can traditionally be guaranteed to get behind their own more than other – Merseyside.

Although the North West county is still waiting for a first X Factor winner, it has a remarkable record of birthing acts that reach the latter stages of the competition.

Four Merseyside singers have reached the X Factor final previously, with Craig Colton gaining a worst result of sixth when on the show in the same year as fellow male Scouse act Marcus Collins.

Based on what has gone before, it was a surprise to see Merseysider Kiera Weathers towards the bottom of the vote after the first live show of this series. Her place was eventually spared in the sing-off, at the expense of girl group Alien Uncovered.

She is now the 5/2 favourite to be the next act eliminated, but the following graphic highlights one reason why this is unlikely to happen.

An act from the previous week’s sing-off tends to benefit from a vote boost in the following show as voters anticipate a greater risk of being eliminated, in comparison to others they like.

Looking back across the last five series of the X Factor, there have been 29 acts that had the capacity to be in successive sing-offs and only six found themselves in this position.

So if Kiera is set to not only avoid being the third act eliminated and keep away from a second consecutive sing-off, which acts are most in danger of a week-two departure?

In an ideal world, the show’s producers would be looking to see the back of Max Stone.

The fact he barely had any airtime prior to the live shows indicated that that he was regarded as little more than a disposable act, while being given a reggae version of an Adele number and an early slot in the running order also suggested he was an intended target to pull in few votes.

It was a surprise that he avoided the opening-show sing-off, but he will be lucky to do so again and 10/3 is decent value that he is the next act out.

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

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