Eighteen-year-old Joe McElderry has beaten Olly Murs to win the sixth series of the ITV talent show X Factor.

The pair battled it out on primetime TV across the weekend to win a lucrative £1m recording contract.

More than 10 million viewers voted in the final show which has dominated television screens this autumn.

It is the second consecutive year that judge Cheryl Cole has mentored the winner. “I can’t even speak,” said McElderry. “Thank you so much.“

Click here for Joe McElderry – The Climb.

The X Factor twins John and Edward Grimes must have thought all their Christmas’s came at once last night as Simon Cowell decided to save the pair from the boot.

Jedward appeared in a dramatic sing-off with Welsh singer Lucie Jones, after the two were voted into the bottom two. After the pair finished their song, Louis supported his act by voting out Lucie Jones, while Dannii & Cheryl Cole both chose to spare Lucie.

It was upto Simon Cowell to make the final decision, and despite their bizarre performance of Rock DJ, he chose to save the twins by going to deadlock.

“Who would I like to see again? I would probably prefer to see the boys again.” To horrified looks from Dannii, Simon continued: “I got a lot of stick for taking it down the public last week and, you know what, I’m going to do it again. I’m going to let the public decide,” he said.

When the studio audience heard the brothers had survived, there was widespread booing and Lucie Jones burst into tears, as she realised her dreams were over. In a jibe at the twins, Dannii said: “I wish all the good singers in this ’singing’ competition the best of luck. It shouldn’t have happened.“

When the sing-off was announced, Cowell said: “We have to forget the past and make the decision based on the best performance tonight.”

Despite Cowell saying the past was forgotten, and the decision of the judges would be based on the sing-off performance alone, he chickened out of making a decision, insisting the public should have the final say. Well I say Simon, if you feel you can pick and choose when the public should have the final say, and when you as a judge should have the final say, how about we make this competition down to the public all the way through?

Why even have a sing off? Why not go on the phone votes alone? No opportunity for the judges to save anybody. The public decides 100% of the time. I’ll tell you why you wont do that, because you want to have your cake and eat it!!!

Just a few weeks ago, Simon said of the twins: “To be fair, we put them in a competition where it’s a public vote, and we have to live, unfortunately, with the public vote. If they win, it will be a complete and utter disaster. I’d probably sulk for about six months and I’d get on a very fast plane out of the country.”

So did Simon Cowell make the right decision guys and girls? Did Lucie Jones deserve to stay? Leave a comment below…