X Factor Voting Bias

I've just done a nice bit of analysis on the X Factor results for 2011 series and it seems the best way to guarantee a path to the next show is to sing just before the phone lines open. They currently open after the last act has finished performing, so it is fresh in the memory for the public voting who may have missed the first half of the show. In fact only 2 acts (Kitty x 2 and Misha) who sung in the 2nd half of a show ended in the bottom 2 in the entire series!

Week 1 (Judges vote) Amelia 1st on, Jonjo, 2 Shoes and James 2nd on
Week 2 (12) Nu Vibe 1st on, Frankie 5th on
Week 3 (11) Sami 3rd on, Kitty 7th on
Week 4 (10) Sophie 3rd on, Misha 5th on
Week 5 (9) Johnny 1st on, Risk 4th on, Kitty 6th on
Week 6 (7) Kitty 1st on, Misha 6th on
Week 7 (6) Craig 1st on, Amelia 3rd on
Week 8 (5) Janet 2nd on, Misha 3rd on
Week 9 (4) Misha 1st on
Week 10 (3) (Voting commenced from the start of the show) Amelia last on

In 5 of the 8 weeks the vote was done that way, the act singing 1st was in the bottom 2 (or 3 as in week 5). To make it fairer phone lines should be open from the start of the programme (as they now do with Eurovision). They did this with the final, but with lines only being open for a short period the person singing last went out (which may have been a coincidence) but it would have been fairer if lines had been open a full day as with other shows.

The trend is not a new one but it is time the voting changed. ITV and Simon Cowell need to look at this to make the voting fairer in the future.

Finally, it was a clever move by producers to make "Cannonball" the winner's song as the original reached number 9 in the charts after being sung well in the auditions by maths teacher John Adams. People will already have bought the original therefore eliminating the threat of the original beating it in the charts.