Ashley narrowly escaped elimination in the last X Factor big band themed night, as he found himself in the bottom three and facing getting the boot from the show for the first time. The fact that he forgot his words did him no favours, but thanks to Louis’ deciding vote, Ashley lived to see another X Factor week. However, it may have been a different story if Louis had been forced to choose between Dionne and Ashley rather than Kerry and Ashley…..

When Ben Shephard later asked Louis “If Dionne had been up against Ashley, would you have kept Dionne in the competition?” Louis replied “I probably would have yes”. He added that he “loved Dionne” and thought it was “a travesty that she has gone.”

Even Simon admitted that Ash needs to up his game next week, saying: “Ashley was in the bottom three and it has given him a bit of jeopardy for next week and that makes it a bit more exciting. I don’t like the fact that he was down there but, he has got to work a bit harder now…..Ashley was way ahead of everybody else last week” and Simon admitted that Ashley had “stuffed up” on big band week.

Sharons view was that Ashley had “had a very lucky escape” and that “he does have a problem keeping in tune with his lower register, but I think Simon’s right, Ashley will definitely kick in to focus on what he is doing and I think he’ll be totally different next week.”

Speaking after the shocking double elimination of Kerry and Dionne, Sharon Osbourne, who mentored both of the girls, said that “its not over, so many door are gonna open for my girls [Dionne and Kerry] tonight. It doesn’t mean going back to what they did before at all. There are so many opportunities that they are going to have through this.”

Kerry said that she felt proud of the performance she gave on big band night and that she loved the blue dress that Sharon had chosen for her. “I’m going home feeling proud, I’ve achieved a lot” said Kerry. She then broke down in tears as she described her X Factor journey as being “fantastic and one of the most memorable of my life.”

Bookies are predicting that whoever wins X Factor 2006 will be more than likely to get to the number one spot in the singles chart this Christmas.

With stiff competition from releases by Take That, Cliff Richard and also an all female quartet consisting of 16/17 year olds called “All Angels”, the X Factor winner is hotly tipped to follow in Shayne Ward’s footsteps, who won X Factor 2005 and then went on to claim the Christmas number one spot last year.

Talking about how she feels Simon’s comments have affected her, Dionne said:

“I was really hurt. What was difficult was that he totally contradicted himself. He started the series by saying that I was fantastic and then by the second week he’d decided that I was a backing singer.”

“It’s been even harder for me because, until the show, Simon was my idol. The first time I walked into the studio I was totally star struck. I was so in awe of him. But his treatment of me has destroyed the illusion I had of him and that hurts. He’s undermined my self-belief and right now I don’t know how I’ll recover. His opinion was so important to me.”

“It just feels that it was so much about politics and not just talent. I love Ashley but, on the night, he was the one who messed up his performance. I’d have loved Simon just to put his ego behind him and see the potential in me as an artist and not just as a rival to his acts.”