On last night’s X Factor we saw judges Gary Barlow and Louis Walsh calling a truce after the drama of last weekend’s elimination of Carolynne Poole.

However, although Gary and Louis shook hands last night, it wasn’t long before the pair began sniping at each other again…

And in today’s Star on Sunday, Gary has revealed that after last week’s drama, he seriously considered leaving the show, with which he says he has a love-hate relationship.

Of course, much of the fuss over the controversy of last weekend was exacerbated when images of the show’s executive producer, Richard Holloway, emerged as he spoke to Louis while Carolynne performed.

Holloway claimed he was merely telling Louis the order in which the judges would vote, however, in order to avoid a repeat of that scenario, the show’s bosses have ordered that all the judges wear earpieces so that instructions can be relayed in that manner…

More on that in a moment but first, back to what Gary had to say of the drama, he explained, “Straight away after what happened last week I thought ‘I don’t want to do this any more’.

“I just thought ‘this isn’t the way I imagined it to be. After what I’ve just seen, the singer who did the worst has stayed’.

“I was even more upset than I appeared on the show. I was trying to hide it because I knew the cameras were on me.

“I couldn’t stand the thought of them taking shots of my face while Carolynne was going through that. I couldn’t bear it, so I walked off.

“I was angry with Louis and I blame him for what happened because he made her wait and wait and wait.

“He told her she was staying and then that she was going.

“Deadlock is a horrible thing for contestants anyway, so to string it out was just awful.”

He added, “The only two things I care about are the contestants and the fans of the show and last weekend didn’t do us any favours.

“People need to know that when you vote and spend your money it matters and it counts.

“And I hate the idea of it being fixed. The fact Rylan was in the bottom two shows things are changing and people want to see talent.

“But the whole thing about someone coming up on to the judges’ chairs, that can’t happen again.

“There should be no one up on that stage with us, it shouldn’t happen.

“I’ve told them that. I do not want it to happen again. We’ve never had that before. I didn’t see it last year.

“I think in the short-term the reputation of the show has definitely been damaged…

“I know what I’m told by the public, by cabbies and stuff like that and people weren’t happy last weekend. They thought their vote hadn’t counted but it does count.”

He continued, “This show gets to me because it follows me round all week. And we are in it from now until Christmas.

“I hate it but I love it.”

Back now to the news that the judges are to be given earpieces, and a show insider said, “Last week was a debacle and it was caused because a producer was talking to Louis before a huge decision.

“Judges don’t wear earpieces and producers often relay messages to them during filming. The show’s big cheeses were not happy about the outrage this incident caused…

“So the judges will be wearing the earpieces in future so any important information can be relayed to them.”

However, apparently the earpieces are uncomfortable to wear as they have to be pushed deep inside the ear, so I guess it remains to be seen if the judges are willing to put up with that discomfort!

Do you think the move will do anything to renew viewers’ faith in the integrity of the voting system?

Meanwhile, see where we ranked the contestants in our X Factor week 2 chart here.