X Factor - Week 3, Relief for Louis Walsh, JLS through

Mentor Louis Walsh must be breathing a huge sigh of relief this week as he, at last, manages to keep one of his acts in the X Factor 2008 contest.

Week 1, he lost Bad Lashes, week 2, he lost Girlband. With both his girl groups gone, mentor Louis Walsh was just left with boyband JLS.

It was Big Band night and JLS performed the 1960 Dean Martin classic, Ain't That a Kick in the Head? Martin performed the song in the original film version of Ocean's Eleven.

The boys performance was credible. Entertaining, if not completely blowing the audience away and they deserved to survive another week.

JLS are not the best act left in the competition, but they are by no means the worst and now they have that added uniqueness... they are the only group left in it. In a year where the voting public may be numbed by act after act of fantastic female singers, JLS may be hoping they offer a refreshing alternative.

This Saturday is Disco week and that should suit them again.

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X Factor - Week 3 - Scott Bruton out

Scott Bruton has become the third act to be voted out of X Factor 2008.

This week was Big Band night and it is only when you see acts having to face the bottom two sing-off for survival, you can see how much that this contest really means to them. This competition is tough. Very tough.

Scott's performance of "That's Life" saw him fall into the bottom two against Daniel Evans. Evans gave a very emotional and heart-felt performance of his survival song which was enough to see him go through.

Louis had the final judges vote on the matter and you could tell it was an extremely hard decision for him to make. In a week where the performances have been arguably the strongest ever, it was always going to be tough deciding who would be the one to go.

Simon Cowell said it, in other years, Scotts performance would have been strong enough to go through.

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X Factor 2008 - Week 3 - Diana Vickers 2-1 Favourite

This years X Factor contest is the highest quality one to date. After last weeks great performance of Man In the Mirror, Diana Vickers has moved from fourth favourite to win, to 2-1 Favourite! Given the standard of some of the other acts in the contest, this is a massive achievement.

It's still early days of course, but Simon Cowell said,"... I actually think you may be the one to beat."

Diana Vickers has her own unique style and Mr Cowell could well be right. One suspects there could be a few twists and turns in this competition yet to come, but Diana Vickers is looking like a major contender.

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BBC Strictly - Week 3 - Rhodes verses Foster

It was Gary Rhodes and Mark Foster facing the Dance-Off this week. Rhodes scored just 18 points with the Judges on his first performance and his Dance-Off performance was even worse. Here's how the four Judges saw it...

Mark Foster deserved to stay in by a very wide margin.

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Gary Rhodes Out

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BBC Strictly - Week 3 - Rhodes Out

Gary Rhodes becomes the third celebrity to be eliminated from the BBC's Strictly come dancing contest.

After finishing last with the Judges, this week, the viewing public failed to save him. Rhodes faced a dance-off with swimmer, Mark Foster. Although Mark's performance was nothing special, it was better than the celebrity chef's by a measure of light years.

In the end it was a unanimous final decision with the judges to keep Mark Foster in and it was an obvious decision. Judge Craig even went so far as to described it as "a no brainer."

Len Goodman said of Gary's dance-off, "It was a brave performance." and we all know that this is really secret code for rubbish.

Respect has to be given to Gary Rhodes for entering the contest as dancing is obviously not his strong suit, but now we can move up another notch as the competition starts to intensify.

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BBC Strictly - Week 3: The Men, Jive & Tango

The scores of the Judges, Craig, Arlene, Len and Bruno are in and here is the leader board before the unpredictable viewers vote.

Austin Healey & Erin 34
Tom Chambers & Camilla 33
Don Warrington & Lilia 30
Mark Foster & Hayley 24
John Sergeant & Kristina 22
Andrew Castle & Ola 22
Gary Rhodes & Karen 18

The dances performed this week were the energetic Jive and the passionate Tango. Austin Healey and Tom Chambers were again out front with impressive displays, but man of the match without a shadow of a doubt, has to be Don Warrington. He was 100/1 to win the competition and a strong 7/4 Favourite to go out this week, but danced a fantastic Tango to give himself a great score of 30. Don should be safe from the bottom two with that.

Gary Rhodes danced a rather weak Jive which Judge Bruno commented had, "More holes than the surface of the moon.". However, Rhodes was previously saved by the viewers from the dance-off in Week 1 and it could well happen again. It could well end up as Castle verses Foster who both looked particularly awkward during their Tango performances.

All will be revealed this Sunday evening.

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BBC Strictly - Week 3: Changing Odds

Some minor moves this week in the Strictly Come Dancing betting market.

Joint Favourites to win now are Austin Healey and Tom Chambers at 3-1. Some money has been going on Chambers to win to edge him into joint favoritism. Rachel Stevens holds steady at 7-2.

Not much movement has happened during the week. Celebrity Chef, Gary Rhodes, goes out to a more realistic 66-1 as does John Sergeant. It is predicted that either one of those two will end up in the bottom two dance-off along with Don Warrington.

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Week 3 - Latest Odds

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BBC Strictly - Week 3: Latest Odds

So now we are into week 3 of the Strictly Come Dancing Competition. Here are the latest odds to win after everybody has danced their first performance.

Austin Healey 3/1
Tom Chambers 7/2
Rachel Stevens 7/2
Cherie Lunghi 6/1
Christine Bleakley 8/1
Lisa Snowdon 12/1
Mark Foster 16/1
Heather Small 16/1
Andrew Castle 16/1
Jodie Kidd 25/1
Jessie Wallace 40/1
John Sergeant 50/1
Gary Rhodes 50/1
Don Warrington 100/1

Big movers in the market are Cherie Lunghi and Christine Bleakley both receiving positive support and are now placed 4th and 5th in the market respectively.

Jessie Wallace drops slightly to 40-1 from 25-1 and Gary Rhodes edges outwards very marginally. John Sergeant continues to flip-flop between 50 and 80-1. I would be very surprised if he gets knocked out this week though.

The top three in the market remain solid and quite frankly, the Bookies do not want to know anyone else. According to them, Austin Healey, Tom Chambers or Rachel Stevens will win. I hope they're wrong, there's nothing like a good upset for a bit of drama.

Week 3 sees just the men perform.

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