‘The X Factor’ UK voting figures: Abi Alton only surprise exit; Sam Bailey #1 for most of season

In what is a tradition that we really wish some American shows would do after the fact (mostly from the standpoint of intrigue), “The X Factor” UK released their voting figures today, not long after their season 10 finale came to a close. So were there any surprising results that came from it? Not when you compare it to years past.

In 2012, the big shocker from the figures being released was that Christopher Maloney was actually #1 for the vast majority of the season in the fan voting, only to later finish #3 after being attacked time and time again in the press. This led to James Arthur, the rare act to recover from being in the bottom 2, actually winning the entire competition.

But really, the only surprise of this season was that Abi Alton managed to go home before the competition got truly interesting, and she was 4th place in voting early on during the live shows. Meanwhile, Luke Friend actually spent four weeks behind Sam Callahan in the voting before pulling ahead and finishing in third place over Rough Copy (who was in third in the voting for a good chunk of the competition, as was Hannah Barrett).

As for the winner in Sam Bailey, she was in first place 8 out of the 11 weeks that voting happened on Sundays. Meanwhile, runner-up Nicholas McDonald was in first the other three weeks, and second the rest of the way. While Luke did close much of the gap over the final two weeks in the competition, it was never really that close for the favorites to really sweat. Sam won over Nicholas by a solid 17% in the end, and now gets the opportunity to savor being named the champ of this season after a pretty long and tiring journey. Also, Sharon Osbourne can leave following her return to the show on a high note.

Do any of these figures surprise you at all? Share some of your thoughts below, and click here if you want to read the rest of our coverage from “The X Factor” finale today.

Photo: ITV