X Factor wannabes Rebekah, James and Samantha left everyone a bit tearful with their moving rendition of I Only Want To Be With You.
We had all been on the edge of our seats when James, who earlier revealed that his dyslexia made learning song lyrics difficult, fled to his hotel in a fit of nerves.
Rebekah and Samantha took being abandoned rather well and quickly worked out how to cover James’s part of the track.
But then, at the very last minute, he whizzed back in a cab and took the stage with them.
After telling Simon Cowell and co what had happened, the three hopefuls unleashed their powerful (if slightly cheesy) rendition of the song, complete with supportive hugs, smiles and nods at each other throughout.
The judges ate it up, and many viewers on Twitter felt the same.
#XFactor that last performance was emotional, they were excellent.
— Carol-Ann Edment (@Carol_Ann2013) September 18, 2016
Literally in floods at the support between Sam James Rebekah. How much nicer would the world be if we all supported each other more #XFactor
— || DJ || (@WriterDebraJay) September 18, 2016
James, Rebekah and Sam should be a group. They are so strong together and the way they supported each other was beautiful! #Xfactor
— Becks (@Becky_Laurens) September 18, 2016
Easily the best audition #xfactor pic.twitter.com/X90gscVg8J
— Stephen Collopy (@Sgcollopy) September 18, 2016
However, not everyone felt the same way.
Many fans thought the performance was a bit overdone.
And a few thought it all seemed a bit fake.
The producers choreographed James' 'freak out' quite well #xfactor
— Not Chloe Jasmine (@ChloeJasssmine) September 18, 2016
How staged was that, tragedy, then re-union, then the song all fitted like a story #XFactor2016 #XFactorBootCamp #xfactor
— K - Tyrone (@ChillaxYhuBatty) September 18, 2016
X factor is so staged it makes TOWIE seem like a documentary #xfactor
— James Parkin (@JamesParkin5) September 18, 2016
Jesus wept you couldn't script this nonsense.. oh no wait... #XFactor
— KayJay (@kayjay_fife) September 18, 2016
How staged and scripted is this pile of shit...won't be watching again 👋🏼👋🏼💩💩 #XFactor #bootcamp
— Siobhan (@Siobhan__00) September 18, 2016
