Pretty similar thoughts to me Gav. It dawned on me not long after the Risk finished that they are plan A - whether they were in the first place or not, who knows, but they certainly are now.
I actually thought they were quite poor tonight - one of them was hopeless, but it didnt matter, the judges were ready with the ramps, and as with OD the backing music was turned up a notch during the chorus.
The problem for the competition is that they dont have the problems OD had - Cowell was always seen to be favouring his own act, whereas this year the setup is actually perfect - boyband royalty in Gary Barlow giving them his seal of approval each week. It's just as orchestrated as Cowell was, but wont come across that way.
If any one of the others gets their act together then they should still be able to beat a group no matter how well ramped, but at the moment I cant make a case for the others who one by one committed X Factor suicide tonight. Mischa was ok, but her voteability long term is pretty poor. Craig and Janet dont really seem to have anywhere to go, Sophie sounded like she had been sedated beforehand tonight, Marcus continues to fail to deliver despite there being a reasonable voice in there somewhere.