Media watchdog Ofcom is looking into complaints from X Factor viewers who claim they could not get through to vote for runner-up Rhydian Roberts.
The Welsh singer was the hot favourite to win but narrowly lost out to Leon Jackson on Saturday night's show.
With just 1% in it, tearful Leon clinched the title, saying his victory was "the best Christmas present ever".
A HMV spokesman said: "Leon as the winner has to be the overwhelming favourite to get the Christmas number one."
He said predicted sales of Leon's single could be up to 400,000 in the coming days: "You have a very motivated fan base who have been watching X Factor. Millions of people will have voted (on Saturday) night."
But Ofcom has received 80 complaints from viewers about the voting.
"They expressed concerns about the operation of the voting and many said they were struggling to get through," an Ofcom spokesman said.
An X Factor spokeswoman denied any voting irregularities.
X Factor production company Talkback Thames admitted some viewers trying to register their votes were met with the engaged tone.
But they blamed it on the sheer volume of calls and insisted the contest was not rigged.
"As all numbers go through to the same lines and vote platform, it is impossible for there to be any bias in favour or against a particular contestant," a spokeswoman said. "Phone lines were monitored throughout the night and there were no issues on voting lines.
"We do get a huge surge of calls and depending on phone operators some callers may have experienced an engaged tone or network busy message and therefore may have to call back, but these calls should not be charged.
"Some Virgin Media customers did experience problems getting through because of high call volumes, but there were no other reported faults on the lines."
What do you think? was it rigged? have your say below and post your comment.
5 comments:
N actually no they wer not fixed because 3 people in my family wer trying to get through to vote for leon all night on the landline so they tried theyre mobiles and got through straight away. its just because the lines wer so busy n the majority of people would have been using the landline
This happens every year, the losing finalist fans are just "petty" and complain. It took me 20 minutes to register my first vote for LEON and Lorraine Kelly on GMTV had even worse problems.
I have made my complaint to OFCOM just to balance what is being said and also applauded ITV in an email on these statement made.
Yesterday I appealed to Rhydian and his Family to ask fans to Stop this petty and sad attitude and accept LEON'S success in the True Spirit of CHRISTMAS and to also ask Welsh Radio Stations to lift the single ban (I wrote to Gareth Davies at the Radio Station who made this sad decision, no reply!) - but then I heard Rhydian did not attend the wrap up party?? does this say a lot about Society today who can't accept losing graciously?
Im a bit sceptical really. I phoned up to vote over 100 times and got through only 6 for Rhydian as i so desperately wanted him to win. I was a little concerned at the time so phoned through to the voting lines of Leon and SD and got through no prob first time, Duh one vote each for Leon and SD, lol. I think the votes were out there for Rhydian but the sheer masses of people voting for him messed up his line completely. Ofcom need to look into the fact that the sheer masses may have held up the line and therefore he missed out on a huge number of votes being logged.
Is this the bookies who started this rumour because they're out of pocket? Myself and 2 of my friends were trying all night to get through to vote for Leon and couldn't get through. It's just people being petty if you ask me
I tried to vote for Leon loads of times on Saturday night and couldnt get through so its the same for all of them, I wish Rydian and his fans would just accept the final decision but there again thats the Welsh for you,just because he was favourite (by who by the way?)to win doesnt mean hes going to. Apparently Leon won nearly all the time going into the final.
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