Fans of The X Factor will of course know that every year, one or more of the show’s top acts somehow ends up being booted off the show prematurely, and that’s often attributed to the fact that viewers sometimes don’t vote for singers they assume are “safe” in the contest.

That same ‘They’re Safe’ syndrome is arguably how Ella Henderson and James Arthur ended up in the bottom two last year during the show’s rounds in November. Ella of course left the competition after the vote went to Deadlock, while James went on to win the show.

So as part of a major revamp of the show ahead of this year’s series – as ordered and overseen by Simon Cowell – it’s been revealed that viewers will now be able to vote via Twitter for free.

The Sun reports, “Fans would have to follow the @TheXFactor feed — which would in turn follow them — and send a direct message each week for who they want to stay in.”

The concept of voting via social networking sites isn’t a new one of course, but it is new to X Factor UK.

A show source said, “Twitter explodes when The X Factor is on so it makes sense to see if this can be harnessed for voting.

“But, obviously, there is currently no way of charging for this so that could create a problem.”

However, free voting will of course see ITV lose millions as they’ll no longer get the majority of their cash from phone voting. That then could lead to more advert breaks and other forms of money-spinning such as product placement.

The paper adds, “While nowhere near as many vote now as in the show’s heyday — Matt Cardle won in 2010 when 15,448,019 voted during the series — several million people do still pick up the phone.”

The insider added, “Twitter voting may well work in America but there are a lot of obstacles to stopping it from being a realistic proposition in the UK.”

What’s your opinion on this? Would you be prepared for more ad breaks and so on in order to vote for free?

Let us know, but for now, here’s a reminder of the moment Ella left the contest last year…