You X Factor fans are a fine bunch of conspiracy theorists and when it was preemptively announced that one of the eliminated caterwaulers had been allowed back into the show, the viewing public gathered in the streets with pitchforks and torches, desperately seeking someone to pin the blame on.
When Loaded’s Man of the Year (1998-Present) Dermot announced that someone called Amelia Lily was to take her place among the X Factor elite, a lot of viewers believed that the result had already been accidentally leaked on STV’s website.
Many people who took to twitter to test the abilities of hashtag filters, thought that the early leaking of the result meant it was a fix. Cries went up and heads were expected to roll. People began looking for Simon Cowell effigies to burn in the streets as the public showed its distaste at being betrayed.
Of course, it turns out that the “fix” was just a technical mistake. Oh well.
STV’s entertainment news site had prepared four stories to cover the possibilities of James Michael, Amelia Lily, 2 Shoes and Jonjo Kerr being voted back onto the show by a listless, zombified public.?Those four stories were apparently published before the voting lines had closed, and were quickly removed. Cries of “fix” could quickly be dispelled.
OR COULD THEY?
STV released a statement to explain the error and apologise:
?The STV web team prepared four draft stories regarding each returning contestant in anticipation of the result from tonight?s?X Factor.?The team always prepare articles to cover all eventualities and this week was no different.?Due to a technical problem all four drafts went live on our website at approximately 20.10 tonight.
The articles were online for a very short time and were removed as quickly as possible.?The technical problem is currently being thoroughly investigated.?We would stress that this was purely a technical error and would like to apologise to viewers.?
Could it be that someone working for STV’s site released the details early to point out this year’s X Factor fix? Could it be that STV have been forced to apologise to cover up for the inherent injustice in one of their major shows. Let us not forget that Scottish Television is an ailing commercial broadcaster that relies heavily on the multi-million pound imports of ITV’s successful shows for revenue.
Wouldn’t they look to protect that asset from criticism?
Who cares? Decide for yourself.
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