X Factor’s Lauren Murray given warning by Simon Cowell

“I don’t hate the competition”. But despite no longer being on the series, the 63 year old has said he still tunes into ITV every Saturday and thinks the show’s ratings will improve.

“I am feeling double stresses”.

After the judges tell him he is axed, Cowell says: “Ryan, your attitude and what you did stank”. “You let yourself down, you made yourself look like a complete and utter idiot”.

“I don’t think it was good enough”, comments Nick Grimshaw.

Calling him, “a horror of a human being” Simon was quick to take him out of the running after an under-rehearsed, sloppy and off-key performance.

As he was taken away in a auto, he yelled: “Tell Simon he can stick his show!”

Elsewhere, the brutal necessity of cutting down the numbers led to tensions flaring as stressed-out contestants forgot lyrics and disagreed over songs.

Expectedly, there were those who disappointed the judges (the not-so-lucky 61-year-old yoga teacher Mary O’Sullivan) and there were those who readily impressed them (21-year-old mechanic Josh Daniel gave a heart-rending version of Labrinth’s Jealous, which brought Simon to tears).

“I just don’t want to give you any false hope”.

Is the “X Factor” set to provide her a (second) big break?

In the first episode, Filipino sisters 4th Power readily impressed when they rendered the Jessie J hit, Bang Bang, which merited a standing ovation from all four celebrity judges.

The dental receptionist – who wowed the judges with her incredible audition – was told that she needed to fight for her place after allowing herself to be given the tiresome parts of Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror. “I have a feeling that with you it’s always going to feel like a sunny day”. “This is a competition”.

The “Six Chair Challenge” has been a sticking point with “X Factor” viewers since its debut in 2013. Joseph McCaul, from Ireland, got through too – but boy, did he have to work for it.