Saara Aalto ALMOST beat Matt Terry to become X Factor champion last night – but he’s been the public’s choice since the first live show
New statistics released from ITV bosses have shown that Matt was a runaway winner until three weeks ago
THE VOTING statistics for this year's X Factor finalists have been revealed - and it looks like Matt Terry was the runaway winner from the first live show.
ITV bosses have posted the percentages for each week online - and Matt was in the top three performers consistently throughout the show.
It wasn't until the eighth week of shows that , who fell into the bottom two in the first week with just 5.3% of the vote, began to catch up- beating him to the number one slot for the quarter and semi finals.
Matt also fought off stiff competition from band Five After Midnight, who placed third, with the band hot on his heels in the rankings consistently throughout the ten weeks of live shows - and beating him in week six.
ended up in the sing-off by week nine - and was scarily close to losing out on the crown completely by beating Scots songstress by a tiny margin of just 0.4%.
In the final countdown to the X Factor title, Matt and Saara were split 48.5% to 40.4% respectively, leaving Five After Midnight with only 11.1% of the tally before voting closed for third place.
LATEST FROM TV & SHOWBIZ
The certainty he would win may come as a shock to the 23-year-old - who was so sure he wasn't going to make it through he had booked himself in to play Peter Pan at his local panto at Christmas.
Now, he looks like he may take home the coveted Number One spot with When Christmas Comes Around - the winner's single penned by .
"Thank you so much everybody," Matt said as he won.
Simon Cowell was one of the first to congratulate him and said: "You came into this final as a good artist, you ended as a great artist.
"What I promise you Matt, we will give you one hundred percent, you deserve this opportunity."
Second place Saara proudly told him before he went on stage to perform the winner's single: "I'm just so happy for Matt, I love you."
As of Monday morning, Matt was number two on the iTunes chart, beaten only by Louis Tomlinson and Steve Aoki's track Hold On, which also premiered during the live show on Saturday.
Hold On became even more poignant when it was turned into a dedication to Louis's mother, who passed away from a vigorous battle with leukaemia less than 48 hours before he took the stage.
To see the full list of voting statistics, .
Got a story? email [email protected] or call us direct on 0207 782 4220