It has taken almost a year to forget about it but Caroline Flack and Olly Murs have once again been attacked about their presenting of the last series of The X Factor.
This time it is former contestant Christopher Maloney who has hit out, accusing the pair of taking the ITV talent show into the gutter.
The wannabe pop star, known for his teary reactions to results shows when he appeared on the competition in 2012, has slated the presenting duo for apparently making a mockery of the programme.
Olly, who is one of the talent search’s success stories, and TV favourite Caroline fronted the Xtra Factor in the year that Christopher took part, before taking the helm of the main show last time around.
Christopher hasn’t held back with his views as to how all that went, saying Olly and Carloine, “took the p*ss”.
Speaking to Digital Spy, he ranted: “I think when Olly and Caroline did it, it lost credibility – it was more jokey, it was more of a piss take out of the acts.
“They took the piss out of everyone – Rylan, James Arthur – it got to the point it lost credibility and it reflected on the main show.
“In my opinion, that’s why it lost a lot of viewers. Now they’ve brought it back to basics, and the spin-off show has Rylan and Matt Edmondson – I think it’s much better.”
With the old guard of Dermot O’Leary back as host and Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Nicole Scherzinger returning as judges, Christopher reckons the show as made a u-turn for the better.
He revealed: “When I was on the show, Nicole looked after Jahmene [Douglas] and James really, really well. And Gary [Barlow] had my back all the way through it.
“They were involved with us, but I don’t think the previous judges were that much.”
The former Celebrity Big Brother contestant ended up with a reputation as a backstage diva on the show, but said it had all been a ploy to fix results.
“They made out I was a bad person and I was really bad backstage to get The X Factor in the papers.
“I was probably the nicest, [most] down-to-earth person on there,” he said.
“It was all to sway the votes. I got seven out of the nine weeks on top of the polls, and they had to do something to prevent me from winning.
“And that was the way they did it.”