In case you care, Scottish singer David Sneddon is the hot favourite to win BBC’s reality talent contest Fame Academy when the viewer voted final takes place tonight. Coral bookmakers has him at 4-6 on to win while he is the 4-5 favourite for Sporting Odds. Despite the good news for Sneddon, the bookies are less optimistic of his success post-show, even though the winner gets an automatic million pound record deal. They are offering odds of 13-8 against him achieving a number one single in 2003.
"The viewing public favoured Popstars over Fame Academy," Coral spokesman Simon Clare told reporters. "The odds suggest the Popstars bands will outperform the Fame Academy winner in the charts as well."
The final of Fame Academy is broadcast at 8.30pm tonight on BBC1, with the overall winner announced after the Ten O’clock News.
Despite the critical and ratings disappointments for the show, audience figures are rising as the final approaches – 6.3 million tuning in to the penultimate live showdown last Friday. BBC 1 controller Lorraine Heggessey told reporters: “There are lots of different ways to measure success. We have to please all of the people some of the time and it has brought in a much younger audience than we normally get for BBC 1."