X Factor bosses have denied that Sunday night's results show was 'rigged' to save Katie Waissel. This comes following a report in The Sun on Tuesday in which the ITV1 show's host Dermot O'Leary revealed he was told by producers prior to the sing-off: "If Cheryl decides to opt out we go to majority vote." Cheryl Cole refused to choose between Katie and Treyc Cohen - both acts she was mentoring - when they ended up in the bottom two. As Cheryl was the second of the four judges to be asked for her decision, she initially refused to vote, and requested to take her vote to deadlock - the public vote - after the other judges had decided. But viewers were outraged when Dermot seemed to ignore her plea and declared that her abstaining would result in a majority verdict, which saw Treyc eliminated from the competition. In a statement, a spokesperson for The X Factor said: "A judge can abstain from placing a vote. Cheryl made it clear last night that she would not send anyone home and therefore abstained from voting. "Dermot went back to her to clarify that it was going to go to a majority vote if she did that. Cheryl was unable to take the vote to deadlock as deadlock requires a valid active vote." On Tuesday morning, Dermot himself took to Twitter to clear up any confusion. "Just thought I'd clear up the Sun story. Bless them. Wrong end of the stick, as always. No 'plot' as quoted... We never know which way the judges are going to vote. "Ever, the only thing I know is who's in the bottom two when I'm given the card. I don't know which judge to go to until I'm called, and the judges, including Simon, dont know the vote or who we're coming to next. It's that simple." Around 1,200 fans have complained to ITV and Ofcom about Sunday's fiasco - with thousands more blasting the show on Facebook and Twitter.
