Gary Barlow, Tulisa Contostavlos, Kelly Rowland and original X Factor judge Louis Walsh have sent home dozens of hopefuls from boot camp

With Cheryl Cole and Simon Cowell no longer on the judging panel, the X Factor producers clearly felt they had to take drastic action to keep viewers on their toes this year. 

And new judging team Gary, Kelly, Tulisa and Louis certainly kept the contestants on their toes as they turned up to the boot camp stage of the competition and were promptly turned away by the judges.

X Factor judges have made this year's boot camp the 'most brutal ever' (Picture: ITV)

As 186 hopefuls arrived at the London venue to sing for the judges again, 40 of them were immediately given the chop after the judges reviewed footage of their first auditions.

Take That star Gary justified the decision by saying: 'We have seen hundreds of people; I think there are some people that don’t deserve to be here. It’s time to get serious.

The X Factor contestants gather to hear the bad news (Picture: PA)

'Now we have the measure of where the best are and where the worst are. I think we need to get rid of a lot of people.'

Tulisa added: 'Looking back, when you’re on the panel and you’ve got all these people on that stage, you kind of get lost in the moment.

'Yes they are a great person, they’ve got a great voice, but great isn’t good enough, these people have to be stars, they have to be amazing.'

Some of those who were given the chance to perform were not the ones fans might have expected (Picture: PA)

Explaining the decision to the contestants, many of whom were left distraught and confused after the news, Gary tried to be as diplomatic as possible. 

He told them: 'Guys, we have had a chance now to review everything, we don’t believe that everybody standing here today actually has the chance to make it.

Dermot was left with the task of consoling the axed hopefuls (Picture: PA)

'It’s been a really tough decision but some of you are going to be going home right now.' 

Contestants who survived the culling were Frankie Cocozza, Kitty Brucknell and Janet Devlin, but plenty more were not so lucky.

The boot camp scenes will be shown when The X Factor airs tonight at 8pm on ITV1.

 

 

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