Simon Cowell, he of the "this is a singing competition after all", has come under some serious fire over the shock departure of Welsh singer Lucie Jones on yesterday's show.

Lucie found herself in the bottom two after the public vote and sung for survival along with Irish twins Jedward.

Louis (obviously) voted to save Jedward, while Dannii and Cheryl both opted for Lucie, leaving Cowell with the deciding vote.

Ordinarily, in such a situation, we would expect Simon to come down on the side of the act that could actually sing. But clearly concerned about his Saturday night ratings, Simon put the decision to the public vote.

And there was only going to be one winner on that score.

Simon was left to defend his decision on follow-up show The Xtra Factor, where he claimed that the X Factor "was not life or death".

"You make a decision right in that moment. If I think it is someone who can win, you do the right thing. It's not my fault the two people in the bottom didn't get the most votes. I have had one of my acts in the bottom two. I didn't win last year.

"It's not life or death – it's making a decision. In perspective, [all the contestants] are coming back to sing a charity record [next week], which is important."

As the inevitable announcement came, Lucie burst into tears, while a disbelieving Dannii was left to say: "I wish all the good singers in this singing competition the best of luck. It shouldn't have happened."

Simon added on the after show: "I wasn't expecting that result. If I had to gamble I would have gone the other way.

"The best person will win this competition. No one has gone out so far who I think should have won the competition. I actually think the public have got it right so far."

By which, we guess he means right for the ratings.

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