Cheryl's controversial choice sparks fury

Cheryl Cole's decision to bring 'troubled teenager' Cher Lloyd into the final rounds of ‘The X Factor’ has caused outrage.

Cheryl picked the 17-year-old to go through to the final, despite the fact that Cher broke down during her audition at Cheryl's house and was unable to sing. And not only has Cher reportedly been assigned a counsellor because her mental state is thought to be weak, she was one of two girls picked by Cheryl who failed to complete an audition – the other was Londoner Katie Waissel – whereas Gamu Nhengu gave a strong performance and has been left out.

Yahoo! users are up in arms about the choice: ‘Cheryl Cole must be tone deaf. She put through two girls that could not complete an audition instead of Gamu who was by far the best of the girls’ says maximum582001.  ‘Gamu Nengu was better than Cher and Katie. The judging was not right,’ agreed chrismbhara. ‘Where the hell is Gamu? What happened? She was awesome all the way through and a firm favourite. She was faultless,’ adds maarkyboy.

Gamu fans should not give up hope, however. There are rumours that she may return to the show, with Internet sites abuzz with whispers concerning a change to the formula which could see all the judges receive a "wild card" pick for the final rounds.

The groups category also caused a stir, with Simon selecting the two groups that he put together from solo acts at the boot camp stage. 1 Direction and Belle Amie were both formed after their solo attempts failed. Did the others really stand a chance?

‘Why do groups bother to enter when Simon Cowell just puts his own groups together and sends them through?’ asks feebeedwards.

Meanwhile, Dannii's choice of half Italian Nicolo over Paije Richardson has enraged  others with commenters calling Nicolo ‘arrogant’ and claiming that Paije was ‘much more talented’.
See the full list of finalists here