The X Factor - series 6 - week 8 - The first show without Jedward

Lloyd Daniels voted off X Factor

This was the first week that The X Factor ran without viewers being able to look forward to a John and Edward production. And the show did seem to be missing that Irish ingredient.

Yet again the acts had to choose from back catalogues. As we are now down to only five acts they all had to sing twice and pick one song from Take That and another from Elton John. This restriction was fine when the back catalogues were of broad music types but have become very restrictive this year. Why couldn't the acts have had one free song choice this week without any catalogue restrictions?

Lloyd is hanging on by his fingernails. He sings even worse than Leon who managed to win a previous series to then sink without trace - but he does look a bit like Leon and young teenage girls presumably provide most of his votes just as they did with Leon. It's just a pity other viewers have to put up with his lifeless and tuneless renditions each week.

At the other end of the spectrum Joe is by far the best singer in the finals this year. He has a superb ability to hit each note spot on - even though his voice is not very chromatic. He has suffered throughout the series with backing music which is much too loud and this was a problem again this week. If he wins the series he will not have to put up with dreadful TV production standards and his albums should sound even better.

It is disappointing that no one has figured out this problem yet. It is probably one of the main reasons why the established acts who sing on the Sunday show insist on lip-syncing to a recording instead of singing live.

The only song where the production team did get the audio balance right was on the last song of the evening - Stacey's Something About The Way You Look Tonight. Well - at least until she got off the piano. Let's hope this performance will propel her into the semi-finals next week.

Many viewers will be wondering if the production team have provided anyone to help Stacey with her on-stage nerves. It's possible and they have not had any success but it's more likely they haven't. In any event if Stacey ever gets to record tracks in a recording studio she may not have the same problems and we could then hear music of a different quality.

Olly had been the bookies' favourite for much of the series. It is difficult to figure out why as he has such a problem singing many notes in tune. This is another week where his drab singing has left him looking vulnerable again.

Danyl is the guy who impressed Simon with his charismatic audition in one of the first shows of the year. It has been really disappointing that he has not been able to reproduce any of that pizazz in any of the live studio shows since he was selected for the finals. He also hasn't been helped by getting drowned out by the backing tracks and over-shadowed by other distractions on the stage but which did give Brian Friedman something to do during the week.

On Sunday's show, the viewers voted off Lloyd, leaving Danyl, Olly, Joe and Stacey to compete in Saturday's semi-final.

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