The Cheryl Cole vote plot has thickened after host Dermot O'Leary described backstage plans while attempting to clarify the X Factor voting system.

Dermot defended the X Factor judges saying:

"We always said we were going to go to a majority verdict. The precedent has been there since my first ever live show. Sharon did exactly the same thing. We thought it might happen, during the break we always know who's going to be in the bottom two but we never know which way the judges are going to vote."

Critics have lashed out saying that producers unusually forced Cheryl to vote before the other judges had cast their vote, meaning that she was always going to refuse and have her vote taken away.

To further confound matters, eventual loser Treyc Cohen is rumoured to have received three times more public votes than Katie. If this was true and Cheryl had voted, Treyc would still be in the competition.

X Factor fans are still calling for Cheryl to lose her 1.7 million pound job after the scandal.