Simon Cowell is said to be furious over what he believes is the BBC’s promotion of Rage Against The Machine over Joe McElderry for the Christmas No.1 charts spot as revenge for the X-Factor’s success over Strictly Come Dancing.
A source close to Cowell said: “At the moment, it just looks like a massive case of sour grapes from the BBC. Strictly was smashed in the ratings by X-Factor. Now someone at the BBC seems to have an agenda and that has made Simon and people working on The X-Factor furious.”
The source added: “Most of the radio phone-ins and coverage on the chart battle seems to be about Rage. Simon is not upset about losing money or anything like that. He just wants Joe to have a fair chance and an opportunity to get a debut No. 1.”
McElderry, who won The X-Factor after a nail-biting season, was behind. His single The Climb had sold 216,795 copies while Killing In The Name was in the lead with 253,476.
But some fans were reportedly buying the Rage song because they were sick of a perceived X-Factor domination.
