‘It was insensitive’: The X Factor’s Monica Michael apologies for ‘bang bang

X Factor flop Steve Brookstein faced backlash following a HIV “joke” he made on Twitter regarding Olly Murs’ blunder on Sunday night’s show.

The 31-year-old British singer, who got his start on the series, is hosting the series this season alongside Caroline Flack.

Simon Cowell’s act Max Stone was first to go after receiving the lowest number of public votes, followed by one of Rita Ora’s girls Monica Michael after she lost in the sing-off against Anton Stephans. Speaking in an interview on “This Morning” (which happened fittingly this morning), she proclaimed that “backstage he was absolutely devastated, so I feel really sorry for him”. “I wasn’t thinking beyond the moment & it was insensitive, sorry.’ Michael had originally been due to perform Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down”) on Saturday night, but her song was changed at the last minute following the Paris attacks.

“I love Bruce and I loved the song, but I had to take a little bit of a risk with it and this time the risk didn’t pay off”, he said.

The X Factor, sandwiched in-between the two others, aired on ITV at 8pm and garnered 7.3 million viewers, with a 30% share and a 100,000 increase from the previous Sunday.

Some, who we presume have never made a slip-up in their lives, are dubbing the error the “beginning of the end” of Olly’s X Factor career.

It appeared he thought three of the four judges had opted to send Michael home, meaning she would have been automatically out of the competition.

Meanwhile, former X Factor contestant Steve Brookstein caused outrage when he compared Olly’s on-air mistake to a doctor telling someone they have HIV. “Obviously it’s the name of the game and it’s an fantastic platform so I just had to go along with it”. He immediately realised his error and apologised, after which it was confirmed the public had voted for Monica to leave.

I had to come back strong and the song that I had was my comeback, I was going to rap in it and show the real Monica that people have seen previously.