Jedward X-press surges ahead with public votes

THE dream – or the nightmare, depending on your perspective – continues for X Factor viewers as Dublin twins John and Edward Grimes escaped another TV vote unscathed last night.

The pair were ice-cool as they went a step better than a week earlier, by avoiding a sing-off with enough votes from their performance of Queen’s Under Pressure on Saturday night’s show watched by more than 14 million people in Britain.

The results show last night saw Jedward – as they have become “affectionately” known – make the last six, while Jamie Archer lost out on the public vote after celebrity judges were split in their support for him and Lloyd Daniels following the sing-off.

The result leaves the 18-year-old Grimes twins as 8-1 outsiders to win the competition outright, although Lloyd is a 50-1 chance of becoming outright winner.

The outcome which saw Simon Cowell’s protege Jamie say goodbye to X Factor last night was seen by many of the show’s fanatical followers as sign of a public reaction to the judge’s controversial decision to keep Jedward in the show the previous weekend.

Having been one of the pair’s strongest critics over the first five weekends since the final 12 singers were selected, he saved them from expulsion over Welsh teenager Lucie Jones, who subsequently lost out based on public voting.

But regardless of the eventual progress of the Dublin duo, whose singing prowess (or lack of it) has prompted loud boos from the studio audience on a number of occasions, are destined for a bright future.

British media publicist Max Clifford can already see the euro signs, predicting last week they would be the next Ant and Dec of British television. The popular pair opened yet another run of I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here last night, minutes after the X Factor results were declared.

John and Edward Grimes might well have been screaming for ejection during their performance on Saturday, when musician Calvin Harris tried to share the stage with them, but instead they carried on regardless.

At the rate they continue to evade eviction from X Factor, their status may well earn them a place in the jungle any season now with Ant and Dec. Or given the D-listers occupying the Celebrity Big Brother House, they might just be due an appearance on that show next – as long as neither of them tries singing in the shower.