For millions, Wagner Carrilho is worth voting for simply to vex Simon Cowell.
And the X Factor joke is far from over yet - as bookmakers back the 53-year-old to make it through to the very end of the contest.
Week after week, the public have voted to keep the Brazilian former PE teacher in the ITV reality show - against the judges’ wishes.
Hello X Factor final: Wagner Carrilho has strong support from people keen to annoy Simon Cowell and sabotage the TV show
But although many speculated that he was simply scraping through the public vote thanks to a few diehard fans, it seems they are wrong. According to apparent internet leaks, Carrilho is regularly in the top half of the results.
As his success has publicly become a thorn in Cowell’s side, that has only increased fans’ determination to keep him in the competition.
Millions are voting for him each week in the hope that he might win and bookmaker William Hill has cut his odds to win from an initial 100/1 to 14/1.
Carrilho's performances have largely failed to impress the judges. He has forgotten the words of his songs, delivering outlandish routines, and sung out of tune.
Nevertheless, for many it seems he is the perfect antidote to the slick style of the show.
Even last weekend’s clash with judge Cheryl Cole seemed to shore up the public’s support for Carrilho.
On Saturday night’s show, she confronted him over remarks he had made to an undercover reporter, in which he dismissed her as a ‘girl from a council estate who got lucky’.
She told him: ‘I am very proud of my roots and I am very, very, lucky. But if I was to give you any constructive advice it would be don’t focus on everybody else or how lucky I am, but how lucky you are to be on that stage tonight.’
Ticking off: Wagner was told off by Cheryl Cole after his performance of three Beatles songs
Carrilho said he had not realised he was talking to a reporter and once again sailed through to next week’s show – leaving Paije Richardson and Cher Lloyd in the sing-off before the judges voted for Richardson to leave.
Since then, watchdog Ofcom has received 200 complaints about Mrs Cole bringing up personal gripes on TV. Carrilho recently won over more fans by criticising Cowell, when he said: ‘Nobody tells Simon Cowell what to do. The public do not decide who is going to win The X Factor. It is Simon Cowell.’
A Facebook group urging the public to vote for him has more than 30,000 members. One wrote: ‘I want him to win and throw a spanner in the works of Simon Cowell ’s obscene money-making machine.’
Another said: ‘I had never voted in any of these talent contests before but Wagner has become an anti-hero. He is everything the show doesn’t want. And that makes it funny.’
Carrilho is also being helped by websites such as votefortheworst.com, which have been urging people to sabotage the show.The site declared yesterday: 'The UK have done it again,' after the 54-year-old survived Sunday's vote.
Surprise success: The Brazilian was rather pleased to avoid last Sunday's sing-off, thanks to the support of his strong fan base
Carrilho has become so popular that there is even an iPhone application called Pocket Wagner, which allows the user to ‘watch his first two live performances, play his best sounds or make a Wagner wallpaper’.
But he has been accused of being difficult and aggressive. He left the X Factor house, where contestants live and stays at a hotel nearby.
He was also accused by rivals of creating a bad atmosphere with his tantrums and complaints have been made about his behaviour on set.
His ex-wife accused him of being a ‘bully’ in their brief marriage, a claim which the singer, named after the classical composer, has denied.
Other contestants are frustrated that the public is saving him while better singers are leaving the competition.
Matt Cardle, one of the favourites, has said: ‘Enough is enough, the joke is over now and people should be voting for the singers. People would mind leaving the competition less if Wagner wasn’t still in it. He can’t sing. I would be gutted if I went before Wagner.’
source:dailymail