Beverley Trottman – the schoolteacher with the voice loud enough to knock the moon out of orbit – has become the latest victim of the X Factor axe, and for once it wasn’t the X Factor judges who binned her; it was the whole wide world.

Because of a judging deadlock, the X Factor elimination went to the public vote, and it turns out that hardly anyone voted for Beverley Trottman. Perhaps it’s for the best – Beverley never stood a fart’s chance of winning X Factor at the best of times, and her performance on Saturday did nothing to prove otherwise. Claiming that she was singing it for all the kids at her school, Beverley performed a new version of divorcee classic Without You that included up to 18 different key changes, the last four of which were only audible to bats and dolphins. Anyway it’s just as well that Beverley Trottman can’t live if living is without her pupils, because she’ll be back in the classroom any day now, surely.

So now that Beverley Trottman is out of X Factor, who’ll win? Here are the X Factor betting odds for Hope, Same Difference and Leon Jackson, with help from Paddy Power…

Hope – Hope were supposed to win X Factor from the start, but now it seems as if the only way they could be any less popular with the public is if they dressed as up Steve McClaren and sang the Croatian national anthem. Coming off the back of last week’s near-elimination from X Factor, Hope went for a completely different change of tactic on Saturday – they dressed in black and got all miserable to a Christina Aguilera song. Well, we say ‘they’ but actually it was all Phoebe again, leaving the rest of Hope to look bored and occasionally make intermittent vowel sounds. And yet Hope almost got voted off X Factor again. So what can Hope do to win the public over again? They can let other members sing, for a start, and go back to only wearing their bras and knickers again. Honestly, the bra and knicker aspect of Hope’s X Factor comeback campaign can’t be overestimated. Current X Factor betting odds – 33/1

Same Difference – Since Saturday’s X Factor was Love Song Night, Same Difference had to be a bit careful; after all, there’s nothing like implied incest to win a crowd over, is there? Eventually, Same Difference plumped for Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now – not so much a love song as a mutual declaration of overbearing ambition. But, hey, by singing it Same Difference got to drop the majorette dancers and giant teddy bears and attempt to show the world that they were capable of maturity. Which they obviously aren’t, by the way – during the song you could see the pair of them straining to hold back their wacky children’s entertainer facial expressions, causing them to involuntarily look as if they were either deeply constipated or mocking the disabled. And yet Same Difference still got through to the final five X Factor acts. It’s starting to look like a poisoned water supply might be the only way to get rid of them. Current X Factor betting odds – 8/1

Leon Jackson – Instead of actually rehearsing for their songs last week, the X Factor contestants all got to go home, which meant that Leon Jackson a) went to his old clothes shop and cried and b) went to see his Mum and cried. But crying all the time seems to be doing the trick, because despite being transparently awful, Leon Jackson still hasn’t been voted out of X Factor. And God knows he deserves to be after Saturday’s performance of You Don’t Know Me; a swingy piece of cruise-ship fluff performed in the style of a sozzled nightclub entertainer at 3am on a rainy Tuesday night. However, since his X Factor song was quite slow, Leon Jackson didn’t get the opportunity to show off any more of his violent electrocution house dance moves, a small mercy that we’ll be forever indebted to him for. But, as the X Factor judges are constantly shoving down our throats, Leon keeps improving. That means now he’s just normally dreadful instead of suicide-inducingly dreadful, in case you needed the explanation. Current X Factor betting odds – 8/1

Tomorrow – X Factor betting odds for Niki Evans and Rhydian Roberts. But if that’s too long to wait – or you feel like making more money than you know what to do with – head right over to the Paddy Power X Factor betting odds page to see the latest, and best, betting odds.

It was never going to be a surprise when Andy Williams – the dim-looking nondescript Welsh boy who couldn’t carry a tune in a tune-sized rucksack – was knocked out of X Factor, which is why we’re not exactly surprised right now.

Because, in an X Factor career so dull that we half-expected his ‘best bits’ package to be one millisecond long, Andy Williams’ performance of Chasing Cars on Saturday stood out as especially weak. Out of time, out of tune, dead-eyed and sung with a face that looked like it was being operated by the animatronic team from Jurassic Park, it seemed a lot like Andy Williams was just forming noises with his mouth without understanding that he was saying actual words. Andy’s X Factor elimination seemed more like a mercy killing, especially since his T-shirt had the word ‘ROCK’ embroidered on it. We’re guessing Primark was out of ‘Insipid’ shirts.

But now Andy Williams has been put out of his misery, who’s going to win X Factor? Here are the X Factor betting odds to win for Alisha Bennett and Beverley Trottman, with help from Paddy Power…

Alisha Bennett – What we like best about Alisha Bennett is the incredibly low standard she sets for herself – case in point, on Saturday’s X Factor Alisha was over the moon simply because she wasn’t utterly dreadful for once. That’s not to say that Alisha was good – that’s too big a step – but her rendition of Girl Put Your Records On was sort of OK in a pedestrian way, like a cheese sandwich or a plastic cup of warm water. Still, though, Alisha lives to sing another round, and we’re pinning that mostly on the way she burst into tears as soon as it was over. Maybe Alisha wept because girls putting records on has a deep emotional resonance with her, or maybe it was the way someone made her wear a sparkly beret and a weightlifting belt for the performance, but she’s through to next week’s X Factor because of it, and that’s all the opinion we can muster on the matter. Current X Factor betting odds – 25/1

Beverley Trottman - We knew it. It’s clear to the whole wide world that Beverley Trottman has a fine set of pipes on her, but she’s as likely to win X Factor as Simon Cowell is of ever working out that the top half of his shirts have buttons. On Saturday’s X Factor our point was proved when Beverley found herself in the final two sing-off. Although her performance was technically very good, it happened to be to You’re Beautiful – and so strong are the negative implications of singing a James Blunt song that she may as well have picked a song called I’ll Stomp On All Your Pets If You Vote For Me. Also, if the rest of the X Factor audience is like us, the only way Beverley Trottman would have got votes after Saturday’s wince-inducing tearful “Why didn’t mummy want me?” VT package is if there was a voting option to duck her like a witch. Current X Factor betting odds – 14/1

Tomorrow – the X Factor betting odds for Leon Jackson, Same Difference and Hope. But if that’s too long to wait – or you feel like making more money than you know what to do with – head right over to the Paddy Power X Factor betting odds page to see the latest, and best, betting odds.

Perhaps this says more about our state of mind than the show itself, but we’re only three weeks in and this season of X Factor is starting to seem like the most controversial one yet.

We’ve seen Sharon Osbourne get her knickers in a twist and leave X Factor only to squirm back again the following week, we’ve seen Emily Nakanda hurl a schoolgirl against a brick wall by her hair and get kicked off X Factor – the big question is what happens next. Will Louis Walsh be asked to leave X Factor for stabbing Simon Cowell in the neck with a biro while shouting “Don’t tell me what to do!”? Will Same Difference be removed from X Factor for having it off with each other? Will Rhydian stare directly into the camera and impart an ancient curse that will turn X Factor‘s audience into zombie soldiers who follow his every word? Probably the last one, we’d imagine.

But who’ll win X Factor? Here are the X Factor betting odds for Beverley Trottman, Leon Jackson and Hope, with betting odds from Paddy Power…

Beverley Trottman – Each year on X Factor there’s an older female contestant who regularly sings the competition into dust but clearly doesn’t stand a hope of winning the show, and that’s the case with Beverley Trottman, whose X Factor version of Feeling Good was confident, strong and electrifying, yet completely forgettable the instant it was over. Don’t ask us why, it’s utterly unexplainable. Still, as everyone is so keen on pointing out, X Factor is important to Beverley Trottman because at the moment she’s ‘just’ a primary school teacher, but X Factor is allowing her to be the woman she’s always dreamt of being – a peripheral singer on a teatime ITV talent show for eight weeks before she’s inevitably voted off and goes back to being a primary school teacher, albeit a slightly more embittered one. Current X Factor betting odds – 10/1

Leon Jackson – You know what we’re getting sick of? Listening to Leon Jackson do his “I’m just an ordinary wee lad from Scotland” shtick on his X Factor VT package week after week after week. Because, you know, we thought X Factor was all about finding a star, not a terrified-looking ordinary wee lad from Scotland who cries a lot. Anyway, Leon’s X Factor performance of Fly Me To The Moon on Saturday was uniformly called his best yet by the X Factor judges, possibly because he wasn’t pulling a face that suggested he could see a gang of masked men beat his mother to death while he was singing it. Even though it was more suited to a SAGA cruise ship cabaret night than a prime-time TV show, and featured a dance that looked like he was being attacked by a swarm of invisible bees, in truth it was Leon’s best routine. Which means that on next week’s X Factor we can be treated to Leon Jackson the obnoxious egomaniac. Yay. Current X Factor betting odds – 7/1

Hope – Although they’re clearly being pushed by Simon Cowell as potential X Factor winners, on Saturday Hope found themselves in the bottom two sing-off. But why? Here’s what we’ve got so far - 1) Hope’s X Factor song was Hanky Panky, possibly one of Madonna‘s least-liked singles. 2) Due to what we assume was a sound-mixing cock-up, Hope were completely swamped by the big band during their X Factor performance. 3) Instead of writhing about in their knickers like in previous shows, this time Hope were all dressed as single mother Chatham schoolgirls. 4) Hope ran over and kissed Simon Cowell in the middle of their song, an act so stomach-turning they may as well performed vivisection on Socks the Blue Peter cat instead. To stay a part of X Factor, Hope need to remember what they’re good at – performing nearly-nude versions of the audio track to Butt Sluts 5. Current X Factor betting odds – 5/1

Tomorrow: X Factor betting odds for Niki Evans and Rhydian Roberts. But if that’s too long to wait – or you feel like making more money than you know what to do with – head right over to the Paddy Power X Factor betting odds page to see the latest, and best, betting odds.

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…

Beverley Trottman – Now that ITV seems to have decided that each episode of X Factor should be a million hours long, it’s inevitable that some singers won’t stick in the memory as well as others, and that’s the case with Beverley Trottman. Memorable last week for the silly wig she wore during I Will Survive, this week saw Beverley ditch the wig and continue her quest to perform all the divorcee karaoke classics in the world with a rendition of I Have Nothing that was too boring to even mention here. Beverley, remember, is a teacher by vocation, and we’re not surprised she’s so desperate to leave the profession if her children’s ‘I Love U Mummy’ T-shirts are anything to go by. How could she possibly be a decent teacher if she can’t teach her own bloody children to spell the word ‘you’? Current X Factor betting odds – 14/1

Andy Williams – Andy Williams has that rare mix of character traits that makes him vastly smug and impossibly anonymous at the same time. And this manifested itself on Saturday’s X Factor in his performance of Stayin’ Alive. Andy – a man who looks like he’d need a six-week training course to teach him what cutlery is for – for some reason decided to not just try singing the most iconic song from a 15-times platinum album, but to sing it in a series of mid-level mumbles and listless grunts. A few self-conscious dance moves aside, Andy’s Stayin’ Alive was so personality-free that it may as well have been sung by a photograph of some grey wallpaper and we’re genuinely surprised that Andy wasn’t shortlisted for X Factor elimination. Current X Factor betting odds – 12/1

Leon Jackson – Leon’s first X Factor performance was so mind-bogglingly awful that we’re not even sure it was music – so, in grand X Factor tradition, Saturday’s show saw Leon ‘stripping it back’ for his performance of Home. No gimmicks, no lurching time signatures, no skronk – just Leon Jackson meekly stumbling around a stage singing a dreary ballad like he’d just wet himself. To be fair, though, Leon’s X Factor performance this week was better than last week, but that’s partly because he’d set the bar so low that a three-minute atonal shriek would have probably been better. Worrying, though, X Factor viewers seem to be warming to Leon’s brand of irritating vulnerability already, which means that we could be in for a few months of this awfulness. Current X Factor betting odds – 10/1

Futureproof – Futureproof’s X Factor debut was a passable attempt at She’s The One that got praise from the judges and pushed them up to second-favourites to win as far as these X Factor betting odds go. But that wasn’t enough for Simon Cowell, who wanted to reboot Futureproof and work them hard and make them better than ever. In short, he wanted to turn Futureproof into Robson And Jerome. And, if that was his mission, he succeeded. After wafting out out a leaden version of If You Don’t Know Me By Now, Futureproof are now fourth-favourites to win X Factor and damn near almost put us into a coma. Nice work Mr Cowell. Current X Factor betting odds – 4/1

Tomorrow – X Factor betting odds for Hope, Rhydian Roberts and Niki Evans. But if that’s too long to wait – or you feel like making more money than you know what to do with – head right over to the Paddy Power X Factor betting odds page to see the latest, and best, betting odds.