X Factor Betting

One of the main reasons we're so happy that X Factor is back is because the hokey unconvincing X Factor theme nights are back, which meant that on Saturday everyone had to sing a song from the movies.

This is because Celine Dion was the special X Factor guest on Saturday and, since she sang the song from Titanic, Songs From The Movies was probably a slightly politer X Factor theme than Really Crap Songs That Only Wankers Like Which Are Sung By People Who Deserve To Be Drowned, the only other theme that Celine Dion fits into. Not that it matters, though - with a couple of exceptions, the X Factor contestants' songs only managed to be Song From The Movies so long as you can count 'second song played in the end credits after everyone has gone home' as a song from the movie. OK, we'll admit that we're just bitter because Rhydian didn't sing the overdose theme from Requiem For A Dream.

Who'll win X Factor? Here are the X Factor betting odds for Beverley Trottman, Andy Williams, Leon Jackson and Futureproof, with betting odds from Paddy Power…

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An unusual thing happened on X Factor this week - none of the judges threw a strop and flounced off the show in a huff only to return the next week all apologetic - oh, and Daniel De Bourg got voted off X Factor, too.

The live X Factor finals are still too new for anyone to really remember any of the contestants, but even with that in mind Daniel De Bourg did a pretty good job of failing to impress anyone whatsoever. His X Factor performance of Fill Me Up Buttercup was a mess of flubbed lines, bizarre handshake dance routines and screams of 'woo' repeated at such a giddying frequency that we had to go outside to see which car alarm had gone off in our street. So X Factor will continue without Daniel De Bourg in it, but that doesn't matter because you probably didn't know who he was in the first place anyway.

But who's going to win X Factor? Here's part one of this week's X Factor betting odds to win, for Alisha Bennett, Emily Nakanda and Same Difference, with help as ever from Paddy Power…

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The second live final of X Factor is just days away now, with the nation wondering if last week's show was just a fluke or if 12 different singers really could be that feckless on a consistent basis.

But, hey, before we get to the last instalment of this week's X Factor betting odds, you'll never guess what's happened. Sharon Osbourne is going to be back judging X Factor on Saturday. After all the kerfuffle about whether she was really quitting the show or not, it'll be good to see Sharon Osbourne back where she belongs - perched uncomfortably between an Irishman she threw water over two years ago and a woman she obviously dosen't like. And X Factor got loads of extra publicity out of it too. Who'd have thought?

Here are the X Factor betting odds for Niki Evans, Futureproof and Hope, with betting odds from Paddy Power…

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So it looks like X Factor 2007 is going to be more about how much the judges can squeal abuse at each other than how well any of the contestants can sing, thanks to Sharon Osbourne flouncing around in a tizzy on Saturday night.

But, really, who can blame her? Personally we think that Sharon Osbourne only started frothing around like a mad lord because she knew X Factor would have been cripplingly substandard without it. We blame the lack of a celebrity guest for this - X Factor is always much better when it pays a famous singer to look anguished because 12 different numpties have mangled their most famous songs in 12 different buttock-clenching ways. Sure, Leona Lewis was last week's X Factor celebrity guest, but making the contestants perform 12 different versions of Bleeding Love would have sent even the most loyal X Factor viewer barmy. Just Leona's version alone is driving us a bit mental, and we've only heard it twice.

Anyway, here are the X Factor betting odds for Leon Jackson, Andy Williams, Daniel De Bourg and Rhydian Roberts, with betting odds from Paddy Power…

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As much as we're told that X Factor is a singing competition, we've always just had it down as the place where Sharon Osbourne goes to roll her eyes around and spout all sorts of mind-bending nonsense for an hour a week.

But now we're slowly facing up to the fact that Sharon Osbourne might not be a part of X Factor any more, after she did a very good impression of a woman quitting the show live on air on Saturday night when two of her acts went up for elimination. But despite all the near-hysterical 'Sharon Quits X Factor' headlines you'll have read, remember that judges netting the show all kinds of publicity by pretending to quit, or pretending to get fired, before triumphantly returning a week later is X Factor's bread and butter. At least we hope that Sharon Osbourne's on-air X Factor resignation was a publicity stunt because, if it wasn't, she's going to be replaced by Chris Moyles. Which is frankly unforgivable.

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The live finals of X Factor always bring pain as well as joy, because each episode means we have to say goodbye to a contestant we've grown increasingly fond of over the weeks - but that'll start next week, because this week Kimberley went.

Kimberley Southwick - the almost cartoonishly annoying barmaid singer - was the first act to leave X Factor on Saturday after the public failed to warm to her performance of It's Raining Men. And we just can't put our finger on why it happened. Could it be because she was dressed up as Gwen Stefani with a thyroid problem? Or because she visibly mouthed the word 'fuck' as soon as it was over? Or because the whole thing seemed to be inspired by hallucinations brought on by a particularly distressing Haribo comedown? Maybe we'll just never know.

But now that Kimberley Southwick is out of X Factor, who's going to win? Here are the X Factor betting odds for Same Difference, Alisha Bennett, Emily Nakanda and Beverley Trottman, with betting odds from Paddy Power…

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So, tomorrow's the big day - and even if England lose at the rugby you'll know that at least you got to spend an hour watching 12 honking nitwits get insulted by a smug man with radioactive teeth first.

It's the start of the 2007 live X Factor finals! We honestly couldn't be any more excited about either - what'll happen? Who'll be the first to sing a Whitney Houston song? What sort of ill-fitting frock will Dermot O'Leary wear? How many seconds will it take for Louis Walsh to decide to quit X Factor again? What percentage of X Factor contestants will be introduced with a hokily insincere sob story? Just how many transparently publicity-boosting platitudes will Simon Cowell hurl at Leona Lewis when she comes back to perform her new single? Will any of us care? X Factor! Yay!

Here's our final preseason set of X Factor betting odds, for any of the groups to win, with help coming from Paddy Power…

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The live finals of X Factor start on Saturday, at last. We've spent month after month watching identical bad audition shows and now it's finally time for the best part of X Factor to get going - the bit where we can really start disliking the contestants.

X Factor has been round for so long that everyone already has a rough idea of what the finalists will be like as people - there'll be the smug bastard, the sobbing manboy, the hopeless colonial, the inexperienced youngster and the polished yet ugly show elder - and it looks like this year will be no different. Although, without Icaro in the final 12 of X Factor, it looks awfully like the 'crackpot foreigner' role will have to be filled by Dannii Minogue. Something tells us she'll manage just fine.

Before X Factor gets going, we're continuing our look at each X Factor category. So here are the X Factor betting odds for the male 14-24s, with help from Paddy Power…

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The Rugby World Cup means that the X Factor live finals start next Saturday instead of tomorrow - which is upsetting news for anyone who prefers watching tenderly-sung power ballads to smash-faced English men beating up foreigners.

But at least now we know who the final 12 X Factor contestants are - which means we also know which of the contestants didn't make it. Contestants like I Sette Cantanti, the group of about a million awkward Woolworths Saturday boys who all looked as if they'd been pushed into doing X Factor by their overbearing mothers when all they really wanted to do was go home and finish painting their Warhammer Skaven Deathmaster army. And to think Simon Cowell chose a group of attractive girls over them. The bastard.

Until next week's live X Factor finals, we'll be looking at each of the categories - so here are the X Factor betting odds for the 14 - 24 Females, with help from Paddy Power…

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Thanks to the flipping rugby, the live finals of X Factor won't start until next Saturday - but that's no reason to not get so excited about X Factor that we dance and sing and giggle and wee.

That's because finally we know who the final 12 X Factor contestants are and, crucially, who didn't make the X Factor cut. So that means little Luke, the sobbing three-year-old who cried so often that even the nation's broody housewives ended up shouting "Pull yourself together you snivelling tit!" at the TV when he came on, won't be in the X Factor finals - although we suspect he'll be given a large part in the X Factor 'here's a performance by a bunch of people not even good enough to get to the finals' routine midway through the last episode of the season. But enough about him, who's going to win X Factor?

Until the live X Factor finals get going, we'll be taking a look at each of the categories to see which is strongest. And we're starting off with the X Factor betting odds for the 25 and over group, with help from Paddy Power…

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The endless live finals of X Factor aren't going to start until a week tomorrow - which puts the skids on any ideas you may have had about betting on the result of X Factor, but it doesn't stop you from some X Factor bets completely.

The identities of the final 12 contestants in the X Factor finals are being kept firmly under wraps for the time being - although we'll be unimaginably angry if any of those faceless, personality-free singers that the cameras never seem to spend too much time lingering on don't get through - but just because we don't know who's in the X Factor final, it won't stop us from betting on how well the winner's first single will do. As if we didn't all already now anyway.

Here are the X Factor betting odds for the X Factor winner getting the 2007 Christmas number one. Help, as ever, comes from Paddy Power…

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The live finals of this year's X Factor are just over a week away, and not only will it mean we'll get to see Dermot O'Leary cry like a big nonsensehead with more regularity, but we'll also be able to get on with some X Factor betting odds.

We can't do that at the moment because we just don't know who the 12 X Factor finalists are yet - although they'd better include the shortish foreign man with the impenetrable accent who only seems to know how to shout the word "Emotion!" over and over and throw himself to the floor like a narcoleptic goat to express himself, or else we'll write a strongly-worded letter - but that shan't stop us whacking along with more of these special judge-based X Factor betting odds. It shan't.

Today: X Factor betting odds for Louis Walsh to quit X Factor and never return. Betting odds as always come from Paddy Power…

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