Friedman: 'It was Rachel's time to go'

Rex Features

X Factor creative director Brian Friedman has said that the judges made the right decision in eliminating Rachel Hylton.

Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole all voted to send the singer home after she ended up in the bottom two with JLS on Saturday.

"It was time for her to be eliminated. I definitely know that she was the bottom of the pack," Friedman said.

"Everyone kept giving her this pass, saying: 'We haven't seen the best of you.' But she had been in the bottom two too many times [and] the public weren't warming to her. If it had gone to deadlock she would still have gone."

Friedman also rebuffed Cowell's criticism of the choreography he provided for Hylton's rendition of Take That's 'Rule The World'.

"It's a shame he didn't get it. The song is a love story. It's interpretative. I like to bring art to Saturday night TV," he said.

> Friedman wants bigger 'X Factor' role