Could I even fake surprise last night when Kandy Rain got voted off the first X Factor Live show? Nope.

They were destined to fall at the first hurdle, but not because they weren’t talented (although the blonde one did very little on either night to keep them in the comp anyway) but when the claws came out on Saturday night, I doubt anyone had their antiseptic cream at the ready to ward off the perfectly manicured nails of Dannii and ‘our’ Cheryl.

In rare form the two (bullies) female judges dominated the judging panel on Saturday for all the wrong reasons. I am sure I was not alone last night, when the camera scanned the audience and showed the backs of only three judges, in thinking that Dannii had been put on the naughty step after her low blow aimed straight at Danyl’s manhood on the previous evening. How dare she?

Twitter was aghast, with Danyl top trending topic for at least four hours after Dannii took aim after school teacher Danyl killed the first live show with his performance of And I Am Telling You.

Of course the missing judge turned out to be Louis who, like many millions was shocked to hear about the sudden death of Boyzone member Stephen Gately in Majorca where he had a home with his partner Andrew. Thoughts and prayers go out to the family and the rest of the band at this time.

So with Louis unable to defend his gals, they were led to the slaughter. Even the vote from Simon failed to rescue them from Deadlock as they faced off with Rachel. How Rachel ended up in the hot seat when Rikki Lonely got through I will never know but there it was.

Kandy Rain exited the competition with the least amount of public votes. Can’t help thinking they were voted off for all the wrong reasons, including the fact that Louis had them styled like they were headlining the Ann Summers 2009 Halloween Party, but I am sure we will see them again next year and the year after as that is what this show is all about isn’t it? Regurgitating rejects.

All in all, not necessarily the most amazing first live show I have seen. Lucie doing Leona made me barf, how could Dannii put Lucie under the scrutinous eye of Simon Cowell with that song choice all the while bestowing a crown jewel upon Dagenham Stacey, makes me wonder just how much favouritism goes on behind the scenes. Granted Dannii did say Lucie was given that song to prove she can sing big songs, well hmmm would she be in the final 12 if she couldn’t sing big songs?

‘Our’ Cheryl’s trio were so boring. I mean Lloyd singing Justin Timberlake was painfully bad, his attempt at dancing just iced a stale cake really. ‘Our’ Cheryl needs to pick it up next week methinks.

Hopefully each act will eventually emerge from their comfort zone as the shows progress and do something out of the ordinary, as if this is what we are getting for the next ten weeks I need to start blogging on Strictly instead.

But in saying that the over 25s are enough to keep me coming back week after week and even though I have slated them on more than one occasion I have to admit I did find Dumb and Dumber ever so entertaining on Saturday night and was actually quite pleased to see them stay in. Not sure how many lifelines they have in this competition but they are still there, for now anyway.

Melanie Cornish