The X Factor 2012: the sixth live round, as it happened 21.30 Even though James Arthur is the best (although you know dubstep's over when it's made it to primetime ITV1...), I would like him to come second or third. This is for two reasons: If he wins, he'll get no musical freedom, so he'll turn into Matt Cardle. Poor Matt Cardle. Some weeks ago I put £5 on Jahmene and, um, £5 on Rylan. This live blog does not condone gambling, ever, let alone after two glasses of wine. 21.25 Christopher Maloney is the act grown-up viewers are theoretically supposed to like, James Arthur is the one we actually like, because he's genuinely very good, and not boring. It's a shame he just said he "grew up listening to the Stereophonics" though. Thankfully he's going to sing Adele's Hometown Glory, rather than More Life In A Tramp's Vest or some such dirge. He'll probably put a quirky little rap in it. 21.19 Nicole Scherzinger is congratulating Union J on honouring the armed forces (they performed wearing army boots. Oh, and poppies). 21.17 The prettiest member of Union J is wielding a GUITAR! It's mainly hanging off his shoulder, though, while the quartet work their way through their "original take" on Coldplay's Fix You, complete with key change. Louis Walsh loves an unnecessary key change. They're better than The Other Boyband tonight though. 21.14 Next up, the other boyband, Union J. One can't help but think that both of Louis Walsh's acts might suffer with One Direction on the show later tonight, being all established and flirtatious and confident and reasonably good at singing. 21.06 Good old oblivious Rylan, "loving life" in his natty jacket while everyone watches the unfolding BBC crisis with one eye, while the other is just waiting for James Arthur. @davidschneider: Blimey. On ITV the #xfactor, on BBC the #xdirector (general) ‏@TheMichaelMoran: BREAKING: Rylan to leave #XFactor, replace Entwistle as DG of the BBC with immediate effect 21.02 He's pretending to arrive in the studio via parachute. Who does he think he is, The Queen? He looks pretty good in his Union Jack suit jacket, but his voice is even flatter than usual as he attempts to belt out the entire Spice Girls back catalogue in two minutes. Gary Barlow is going to be so, so mean... 20.59 It's time. To Face. Rylan Clark's. Tan. As predicted by, ooh, me, he's going to sing a Spice Girls song and is saying something about how he was "that kid in the playground who wanted to be Geri." Man, I hated that kid, even though I was at university at the time. 20.54 Tulisa wants all "gels" and "northerners" to pick up their phones and vote for Ella. Her facial expressions are very passionate but her new wedding hair is somewhat rigid. 20.52 It's true, she performed Tinie Tempah's Written In The Stars and she was totes epic, bro. Or, in the words of Nicole, she was "a righteous babe." Can't they just hold up score cards or something? 20.49 Tulisa says that Ella Henderson's performance is going to be "epic." But young people regularly use that word to describe crisps and all manner of mundane subjects these days, so who knows. 20.45 The endless festive ads are working - X Factor viewers are thinking about Christmas dinner already. @TheMichaelMoran: I can't quite work out why I think Louis looks like a Brussels sprout in a suit, but I do. 20.41 So, District 3 are pretty dull. @platinumjones: If there's anything worse than a ropey boyband over emoting over an old song with "Real" instruments I've yet to see it. Meanwhile, it seems Nicole Scherzinger's judging skills are growing on the X Factor viewing public... @louisejones_x: Every time Nicole Scherzinger makes me laugh I want to slice my tongue into strips and stitch them onto my eyes. 20.36 Louis Walsh is discussing song choices with one of his identikit boybands, District 3. He thinks they can do better than George Michael. Westlife? Bewitched? Jedward? Oh, no, it's Eric Clapton's Tears In Heaven. 20.32 That was very good. Tulisa agrees. So does Louis. Nicole's practically in tears, as if Jahmene's her son (just like Cheryl Cole and Joe McElderry, remember?). Gary's impressed too and says he's "never heard Angels sung like that before" which you could evilly twist into a dig at Robbie Williams if you're into that sort of thing. 20.29 He's doing Angels! Hopefully he won't do the annoying Robbie Williams thing and thrust the microphone at the crowd for the entire duration of the song while smiling smugly because he can't be bothered to sing it anymore. 20.26 Time for Jahmene Douglas. It's lucky he's very good, otherwise we might think he'd only been selected to make Dermot O'Leary look tall. So, we're discovering that Nicole Scherzinger got Jennifer Hudson to give him a call this week. I'd prefer Lopez or Aniston, but he seems pretty chuffed. 20.23 Ah, Christmas adverts that are all competing to make us cry. New rule: if you well up at the sight of an Iceland garlic and lemon chicken party twizzle stick just because there's some soppy music playing, you have to go to a Christopher Maloney gig when X Factor's over. 20.20 Ooh, @misshkwilson on Twitter has a controversial view: I think Gary hates Christopher as much as we all do. Is she right? Is it like Simon Cowell and Steve Brookstein all over again? 20.18 Which judge will be first with a "you'll be lucky if you're still standing after that performance, pal" comment? The smart money's on Louis Walsh. 20.11 Gosh. I thought it was against the law to get a bit shirty with Dermot O'Leary, TV's Nicest Chap (TM), but Gary Barlow is cross with him already. Gary's only remaining act, boring old Christopher Maloney (yeah, come and shout at ME, Barlow) is up first, and about to sing an Elton John number. Gary is, of course, showing how terribly musical he is by wittering on about D flat majors and what-not (are D flat majors a thing? It sounds like a thing. But my piano teacher was mean, so I didn't get that far), forgetting that people who watch X Factor don't care about such detail. 20.09 Here come the judges. Tulisa appears to have a snazzy new hairdo. Louis Walsh does not. 20.06 It's started! And we've just been reminded that poor Gary Barlow only has that Christopher chap left in his category. But it's OK, One Direction are performing tonight to make sure people still actually watch. 19.45 Hello! X Factor's on shortly (but I wouldn't advise putting on ITV1 just yet, as there are currently lots of people with drawn-on brows, stuck-on lashes and sprayed-on tans shrieking at each other on Take Me Out) and I'm Isabel, your live blog hostess for the evening. Last weekend, floppy-fringed chimney sweep Kye Sones got voted off, meaning that Rylan Clark (who doesn't look unlike a Take Me Out contender, actually) is still in the competition. In fact, he actually did some genuinely quite good warbling when he sung for survival last week, much to Gary Barlow's annoyance. Tonight's theme is Best of British and there are few song spoilers lurking in darker corners of the internet but all I'll reveal is that Rylan spent yesterday with Geri Halliwell. Anyone else feel a "zig-a-zig-aaaaaaargh" coming on? Make sure you leave witty comments about the show for me to pass off as my own in the comments box below. Alternatively, you can tweet me: @isabel_mohan.