Will Tom Bleasby be replaced at X Factor Judges' Houses?
Bleasby has quit ahead of the next round of auditions with judge Nick Grimshaw. So what happens next?
Singer Tom Bleasby has quit the X Factor ahead of this year's Judges' Houses, with an X Factor spokesperson telling RadioTimes.com that a decision on whether Nick Grimshaw's Boys category will get a replacement has yet to be made.
"It could be either as it stands. We could go with Nick just having five boys or choose a replacement from the Six Chair Challenge."
That replacement would presumably be Ollie Marland, who was the last to be swapped out of his seat, although given the fact that category mentors can change their mind throughout Six Chairs, any one of the ten not given a seat by Grimshaw could be up for consideration. But with the next round calling on all of the mentors to slice their categories down again, perhaps it's best leaving Grimmers with fewer hopefuls. There's only so many puppy dog eyes one can take.
Bleasby announced his departure after this weekend's episode showed him making it into Nick Grimshaw's top six boys. It was certainly a dramatic Six Chair Challenge, which saw the 19-year-old briefly swapped out for Ben Clark, before pressure from the Wembley crowd saw Grimmers change his mind and bring him back, ousting Nathanael Landskroner.
Of his departure Bleasby told ITV: “I just don’t know if I felt vocally ready to take on the competition and the pressure. This isn’t the end, it’s just a new beginning. It just wasn’t right for me at this time.”
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Grimshaw's Judges' Houses stage is due to film this Friday, so a decision will be made in due course.
The X Factor continues Sunday at 7:00pm on ITV
