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"One Direction have finished third in this year&amp;#039;s series of The X Factor. Simon Cowell&amp;#039;s last group in the competition became the first act eliminated from tonight&amp;#039;s concluding part of the grand finale, an announcement that visibly stunned the boys and made their mentor turn his back to the audience. They had previously sung a rendition of Natalie Imbruglia&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Torn&amp;#039; earlier in the programme. When asked to sum up their time on the show, bandmember Louis Tomlinson stated: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s been absolutely incredible. For me the highlight when we first sang together at judges houses, that was unbelievable.&amp;quot; Meanwhile, 17-year-old Zain Malik confirmed: &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re definitely going to stay together, this isn&amp;#039;t the last for One Direction.&amp;quot; Malik&amp;#039;s statement was echoed by Cowell, who had earlier commented that the group were &amp;quot;something never seen before&amp;quot;.  &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m absolutely gutted for them,&amp;quot; he declared. &amp;quot;But for everyone who&amp;#039;s bothered to pick up the phones over the last few weeks I really appreciate it. All I can say is, this is just the beginning for these boys.&amp;quot; With the 14th act eliminated, Dannii Minogue&amp;#039;s Matt Cardle and the Cheryl Cole-mentored Rebecca Ferguson will now go to head-to-head for the X Factor 2010 title.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-x-factor/news/a292842/one-direction-finish-3rd-in-x-factor-final/>