‘The X Factor’ UK postmortem: Why Freddy Parker was eliminated over Saara Aalto

Just one day ago, we had what was in our mind one of the first real surprises of this “X Factor” season: Freddy Parker, a singer who was one of our personal favorites for the past couple weeks, ended up being eliminated. He was someone we very much enjoyed seeing perform, so what in the world happened? In this postmortem, we’re going to do our best to figure it out. Typically, we post these within a day or two after the latest results show.

1. He performed at the start of this past performance show – It’s commonly called the “death slot” for a reason. Commonly, acts who kick off a show are forgotten about by the time many people are voting at the end.

2. He had some criticism from the judges – While someone like Honey G was effusively praised for both her performances (and not in any danger), Freddy had to face some negativity there. While viewers have their own minds and can therefore figure out what they want to do for themselves, we do think the opinions of these judges do matter to a certain extent.

3. No huge buzz or promotion – In terms of air time, Matt Terry is the one of Nicole Scherzinger’s Boys with the most play in the edit, and probably is the only one with finale potential at present.

4. Saara Aalto performed late in the show – This is sort of the flip of Freddy performing at the start. Since we went into deadlock, where viewer votes mattered more than anything else, this may have played a role.

5. Older voters – Typically the “X Factor” voting audience is significantly older to someone like Freddy, which may help to explain why all of Sharon Osbourne’s Overs are still in the competition. (Also, Honey G has a lot of promotion and, love or hate her, is super-memorable.)

Want to get some further analysis on this past “X Factor” episode and the results? Our advice is to head over to this link right now! (Photo: ITV.)