X Factor decision rehearsed?

Presenter admits that result was pre-empted...

10:12 10 November 2010

Fans of X Factor have been further angered today after Dermot OÂ’Leary said that Cheryl ColeÂ’s decision not to vote had been made before going live.

During the commercial break, the presenter and judge had been told by bosses that Cheryl should not vote, therefore letting it go to a majority vote.

This, of course, resulted in the controversial decision that led to Treyc CohenÂ’s exit from the competition.

Should it have gone to the public vote, OÂ’Leary revealed that Katie Waissel would have gone after having the lowest vote by a considerable margin.

On Sunday night, both of Cheryl’s girls found themselves fighting for survival – and not for the first time. Katie has now been in the bottom two three times, whilst for Treyc it was the second time.

With Simon Cowell already voting for Katie to stay in the competition, the controversy came when Cheryl refused to send any of her girls home. The following confrontation between presenter and judge was in fact also rehearsed.

Dermot refused to accept Cole's invitation of letting the others vote first so she could take it to deadlock and Treyc found herself saying goodbye after Louis decided to send her home.

Cheryl’s decision not to vote has been met with a severe backlash, some calling for the singer to lose her £1.7million a year job.

More than 1,000 official complaints have been made to ITV so far, with Ofcom receiving more than 2,000.