Rylan Clark-Neal has addressed the latest fix claims to hit ‘The X Factor’, after the supposedly random “jukebox” generator just happened to choose ‘Fright Night’ as the theme for this week’s live show, which airs just days before Halloween.
This glaring coincidence prompted some backlash from ‘X Factor’ fans on social media, who accused the show of being rigged, but ‘Xtra Factor’ host Rylan has now insisted that everything with the jukebox is legit.
Speaking on Thursday’s (25 October) ‘This Morning’, Rylan insisted: “I can confirm this. As much as I’m the first one to say, ‘ah, it’s a fiddle’ like other shows, it was not fixed whatsoever.”
In typical Rylan fashion, he continued: “The director was standing at the side of the stage. That jukebox is pretty much an empty shell with a genuine tombola wheel.
“When Dermot span it, we were all standing there - and I wanted ‘Louis Loves’, I can’t wait for that week - and as it was coming round, I had the executive producer of the show a metre away from me trying to blow it so it didn’t [land on Fright Night] because obviously everyone is now up in arms, saying it was fix.”
He’s not the only one to speak out over the “fix” claims, with Nicole Scherzinger having her own unique say on the matter in a recent interview.
She said: “I genuinely think that it’s not fixed because I know every week I can’t pick my songs until we know what [theme] we’re doing – and the producers aren’t picking anything as well.
“When it did land on Fright Night, Simon [Cowell] said, ‘Oh we are going to get reamed because everyone’s going to think it’s fixed now.’”
‘X Factor’ isn’t the only show trying something a bit spooky on Saturday night (29 September), with the songs and dances having already been announced for this year’s ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ Halloween special.
‘This Morning’ airs every weekday from 10.30am on ITV.