‘The X Factor’ UK rankings: Why Lauren Murray, 4th Impact, Reggie ‘n Bollie are on the rise

We know that “X Factor” ratings are on the decline, but we just need to come out and say it about the remaining contestants: They’re all really talented. We legitimately think that this may be overall the most talented top 7 we’ve seen in years. There’s no joke act in the mix; there are some that have a smaller chance of winning, but we can see at least five, maybe six of these acts in the final if the right things happen.

As always, we are basing these rankings on performance quality, edit, voting history, and also our perception of momentum, otherwise known as the hardest thing to gauge.

7. Mason Noise (last week: 9) – It really feels mean to consistently rank Mason last, and we don’t mean it in the sense that he is a bad performer. It’s not that at all. It’s more that we are considered that he does not have the fan following, and never will based on some of the backlash to what happened in the past.

6. Anton Stephans (5) – We think Anton can recover, and what happened to him was an unfortunate side effect of him picking the overdone “I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston last week. A new song for him could make just about all the difference in the world.

5. Reggie ‘n Bollie (6) – We don’t imagine that anyone projected these two guys to make it this far, but here’s our concern: They really had a great moment in “What Makes You Beautiful,” and we’re not sure that they will be able to top that. We hope they do, since we probably look forward to just watching them every week more than any other act.

4. Louisa Johnson (3) – Louisa has been consistently good, but we do have a concern now: Are we starting to get a little too much in the way of aggressive promotion on her? There can, after all, be too much of a good thing, and the show is really hyping her.

3. Che Chesterman (2) -The biggest thing Che has going for him is that he is the sort of singer who routinely does really well on this show. The downside is that we really didn’t get anything original our of his last performance. He needs to modernize a little bit and he’ll be in great shape.

2. Lauren Murray (4) – She’s coming off of what may be a top 3 performance of the season in “One Last Time,” and like with Reggie ‘n Bollie, that will be hard to top. Still, she’s got a really good range, and if she can capture that magic again, she could win the whole thing. What she has going for herself now is that we think she’s really easy to relate to. She’s funny at times and human in others.

1. 4th Impact (1) – We still feel like these four women have so much support behind them that we’re not compelling to move them from the top spot yet. Given the health issues last week, or even without them being there, what we saw was outstanding. We’d like to see them with a slower song, but they entertain and sing like nobody’s business.

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