X Factor Phone Probe

Media watchdog Ofcom is looking into complaints from X Factor viewers who claim they could not get through to vote for runner-up Rhydian Roberts.

The Welsh singer was the hot favourite to win but narrowly lost out to Leon Jackson on Saturday night's show.

Ofcom has received 80 complaints from viewers.

An Ofcom spokesman's said: "They expressed concerns about the operation of the voting and many said they were struggling to get through."

An X Factor spokeswoman denied any voting irregularities.

X Factor production company Talkback Thames admitted some viewers trying to register their votes were met with the engaged tone.

But they blamed it on the sheer volume of calls and insisted the contest was not rigged.

A spokeswoman added: "As all numbers go through to the same lines and vote platform, it is impossible for there to be any bias in favour or against a particular contestant."

"Phone lines were monitored throughout the night and there were no issues on voting lines."

"We do get a huge surge of calls and depending on phone operators some callers may have experienced an engaged tone or network busy message and therefore may have to call back, but these calls should not be charged.

"Some Virgin Media customers did experience problems getting through because of high call volumes, but there were no other reported faults on the lines."