14 DAY TRIAL // Rumors that there's constant feuding among the judges on X Factor seemed to be confirmed last night, when Simon Cowell snapped back at Louis Walsh for criticism on Katie Waissel's performance.
The strongest performances of the night were Cher Lloyd's, Rebeca Ferguson's and Paije Richardson's. Both Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell considered Katie Waissel's take on one of Elton John's classics just as strong.
As the video below will confirm, not the same can be said about Louie – and Dannii Minogue too, to a certain extent. After saving Katie from elimination the other week, Walsh didn't seem too happy about her performance.
Katie's mentor, Cheryl, chose for her “Saturday Night's Alright (For Fighting),” a song that proved quite appropriate given what happened at the judges' tables after she was done performing it.
“Cheryl, Elton has 44 albums and you give her this silly song. It was a throwaway performance. It was awful. It was wrong,” Louis said, quite visibly upset.
He added that, based on this performance, this was clearly Katie's last week on the show – and she couldn't possibly blame him for it for he had saved her on the previous show, but Cheryl for not giving her song proper consideration.
Cheryl too tried to make her voice heard, repeatedly asking Louis what other song would he have given her, a question he chose not to respond by saying only that “Saturday Night” was a very bad choice.
Dannii seemed to agree with Louis, at least partially – though she obviously went out of her way to sound less harsh.
“It was alright for fighting tonight. Credit for coming back and giving it you all. You sounded really good on the chorus. On the verses the track ate you up a bit,” she said.
Then came Simon's turn to speak – and he made it a point of telling Louis off, even hinting that such unwarranted criticism may actually cost him his job on the panel.
“In terms of sheer entertainment value, my favorite performance of the night so far. Louis, you're gonna get removed from the building if you keep on talking like that. You're talking complete and utter rubbish,” Simon said.
“I'm 100 per cent happy I kept you in... Shut up Louis... you're (Katie) not boring, you're not predicable and you've got a fighting spirit,” he added.
Towards the end of the evening, things eventually settled down between the judges, but now it's no longer a secret that they're having issues
Check out the video below of Katie Waissel's performance and judge for yourself who's right and who's wrong.