X FACTOR: Let's crunch the numbers!!

Tags: danyl johnson, edward grimes, joe mcelderry, john and edward, john grimes, olly murs, rachel adedeji, stacey solomon, x factor.

The 'X Factor' statistics have been released, and it shows some very odd voting behaviour!!!!

For example, Danyl Johnson went from getting three times more votes than any of the other contestants in the first week to just 6% a week later, and then facing the bottom two in Week Three. By the following two weeks, he was back on top of the vote, again with three times more votes than any other finalist in the fourth week. When he finally left in the semi-final, he managed 18.8% of the vote to Stacey's 19.4% and Olly's 19.6%, so it was a very close call.

Also interesting is that Olly Murs was bottom of the public vote in the week he squared off with John & Edward. If the judges hadn't reached a decision and it had gone to deadlock, Essex-born Olly would have lost and left the show with 9.8% to their 10.7%. This means the public never really wanted him in the final, but yet he miraculously managed to come second!

Joe never topped the public poll until the seventh week, but since then he has been at least 17% ahead of his nearest competitor. Until the semi-final, his closest competitor was Stacey. His win in the final was with a somewhat convincing 61.3% of the vote to Olly's 38.7%. Wow!

Here's the week-by-week winners:

• Week 1 - Music Legends - Danyl Johnson
• Week 2 - Divas - Stacey Solomon 
• Week 3 - Big Band - Rachel Adedeji (she was sent home just a week later!)
• Week 4 - Rock Week - Danyl Johnson
• Week 5 - Movie Week - Danyl Johnson
• Week 6 - Queen Week - Stacey Solomon
• Week 7 - George Michael/Wham Week - Joe McElderry
• Week 8 - Take That/Elton John Week - Joe McElderry
• Week 9 - Semi-Final - Joe McElderry

What's interesting here to me, is that - excluding the final - Danyl Johnson won the vote (and with far bigger margins) as many times as eventual winner Joe. Stacey Solomon also came high and won two shows, while runner-up Olly placed in the middle to bottom positions each week right up until the end. I feel a bit like he only ended up in the final because people didn't DISLIKE him, rather than people actively liking and voting for him during the earlier stages. It seems apparent that Danyl (who is promised a record deal) and Stacey deserve a big future!!

What's also nice to see is that Joe didn't start off particularly strongly, but he won 'X Factor' fans round and then maintained their affections with his consistent performances. He did not place very well in the early stages, but by the end he was unshakeable. Big congrats to Joe!!!

Image: Syco TV / Talkback Thames / ITV