FYD blame running order for early X Factor exit

X Factor rejects FYD today blamed the show's running order for them being given the boot in the first week of live finals.

The group said that being the first act on Saturday's show had counted against them because some viewers missed the early minutes of the show.

The five piece boyband from London - Matthew Lawton, 26, Kalvin Lamey, 25, Alex Murdoch, 22, Ryan-Lee Seager, 22, and Jordan Gabriel, 22 - were left in the bottom three after the public vote.

They were booted off after competing in the sing-off against Cheryl Cole's controversial act Katie Waissel, and only their mentor Simon Cowell chose to try to save them.

Seager said: "There's a big part in going on first - it would have been about the votes.

"Some people don't tune in for that first part, some people don't tune in until about 8 o'clock and miss the first half an hour. It's one of those things when you're like 'Oh it started at eight', it's a thing that happens."

The band also felt let down by judge Louis Walsh for not choosing to save them.

Walsh had been critical of Waissel's performance on Saturday and if he had chosen to save FYD, the show would have gone to "deadlock" - which means elimination would have been down to the act with the fewest public votes.

Lawton said: "It would have been nice if he'd given us a deadlock, and then it would have been an even playing ground and we would have maybe stood a chance of being there for next week, it might have been a different outcome."

But he added: "It's a television programme and it's a competition at the end of the day, we'll never know the rhyme or reason, or why the judges pick who they pick."

The band, four of whom dance professionally, were criticised by judges Walsh and Dannii Minogue for dancing too much during their performance.

And in an apparent dig at judge Cheryl Cole the boys defended their performance, insisting they had proved they had more skill at being able to dance and sing live. Cole was criticised when she gave a lip-sync performance while promoting her single Fight For This Love.

Seager said: "A lot of credible artists mime when they have an all-out routine. So to sing live in front of 14 million people and have a full-out dance routine from (choreographer) Sisco Gomez, who is amazing, I feel proud of us."

Murdoch added: "So many artists these days dance and sing, people like Usher, Lady Gaga. It just seemed funny that they kept saying about the dancing bit. To me it just seems normal, even Girls Aloud dance, if you see their concerts."

FYD were the only original group to make it through to the final 12, as rival acts Belle Amie and One Direction were put together by Simon Cowell during boot camp.

They claimed Cowell had already decided he wanted boyband One Direction to win the show.

Seager said: "We reckon One Direction are the people that are going to end up winning and we think that's why we went out."