Fame Academy - then there were 11

The remaining 11 contestants in Fame Academy, the BBC talent show, were settling back into their temporary home today after the first of their number was evicted.

Ashley House, 28, a married public school teacher from Cheltenham, became the first person to leave the show after viewers and students voted for their favourites to stay.

Three pop hopefuls, put on “probation” last week by academy staff, had been practising all week for last night’s programme, in which they were required to sing solo on live TV.

Ashley House, Nigel Wilson, 31, a father-of-four from Scunthorpe, and Pippa Fulton, 20, a student from Hull, all sang for survival.

Nigel, the oldest contestant at the academy, won 41% of the public vote, meaning he stays on to next week.

He was later joined by Pippa, who won eight out of 10 votes cast by her fellow students.

Ashley, who academy staff had previously said lacked confidence and energy, was then asked to join his former colleagues on stage for a final performance before leaving the show.

Viewers and students were asked to vote after watching Ashley cover the Jimmy Cliff/Johnny Nash song I Can See Clearly Now, Nigel sing the Wilson Pickett hit In The Midnight Hour, and Pippa perform a version of Nelly Furtado’s I’m Like A Bird.

Viewing figures for the show, whose cameras will follow the remaining contestants as they are groomed for stardom, fell by almost a million in a matter of days over last weekend.

Last Friday’s show got 4.6 million viewers – little more than Gardener’s World on BBC2. By Tuesday, the viewing figures had dipped to 3.7 million.

Bosses at the BBC are confident the show is a “slow-burner” and that excitement will build as the wannabes are whittled down in the coming weeks.

The winner of Fame Academy is promised a £1m (€1.58m) recording deal and the chance to live as a star with all the trappings of fame – and a West London flat and sports car – for a year.