News from The X Factor camp today begins with a report in The Sun – who captured the above picture – that Xtra Factor co-host Olly Murs had an Ooo This Is Awkward moment when he made what could easily be considered a Nazi salute during a gig in Germany last night.

We also have news of a massive drop in The X Factor USA’s viewer ratings; more on that in a mo.

But first, of Olly’s faux pas, The Sun reports that he made his “unfortunate salute” whil performing in Baden Baden.

The paper adds, “Happily fans in the Black Forest didn’t object and his performance went down a storm.”

However it seems that Olly’s judgement may have been a tad impaired given that he’d previously appeared on a German chat show where he downed a pint of strong German beer in one go…

Before he went on stage for last night’s live concert, he tweeted, “Fun times down here in ‘Baden Baden’ downing the pint in 4 seconds was sooo funny!!

“The presenters face was hilarious.. He didn’t expect it!”

Also rather unexpected is – as mentioned above – the sudden slump in X Factor USA viewers, which is apparently causing Simon Cowell a few sleepless nights!

Particularly as it cost a whopping £9.5million to sign Britney Spears and Demi Lovato to the show this year.

However, figures for Wednesday’s show were 8.5million, which is 3.5million down on last season’s opener.

The show then hit a record low of 7.5million viewers in the hour that it went head to head with NBC’s The Voice, which attracted an audience of 10.7million fans.

A TV insider said, “The US show’s future is on the line.”

The UK series ratings are of course also falling, and ITV bosses are hoping that the figures will improve as the show moves into the live rounds.