Two Voice favourites eliminated (From York Press)

Two Voice favourites eliminated

9:34pm Sunday 27th May 2012 in National News © Press Association 2013

The two favourites to win BBC talent show The Voice have been eliminated.

Ruth Brown and Jaz Ellington both missed out on a place in Saturday's final after failing to win enough votes from the public. Saturday night's semi-final, which included an appearance by Cheryl Cole, was watched by the lowest audience of the series.

Coaches Sir Tom Jones, Will.i.am, Jessie J and Danny O'Donoghue each had only two singers left on their teams, but only one from each mentor could survive.

Sunday night's results show confirmed that Tyler James, Vince Kidd, Leanne Mitchell and Bo Bruce had all made it through to the final. The other two acts eliminated were Becky Hill and Max Milner.

Ruth Brown, who was the bookmakers' favourite to win the competition, failed to attract enough votes after delivering an emotional version of Christina Aguilera's ballad The Voice Within.

Sunday night's show featured an appearance by Kylie Minogue, who sang new release Timebomb. Cheryl Cole was on the show last night to perform her new single Call My Name. Dressed in a patterned crop top, bright pink waistcoat, multi-coloured harem trousers and leopard print boots, she made a dramatic entrance by swan diving on to her backing dancers.

The show drew just 4.5 million viewers on average. The programme is now pulling in less than half the audience it attracted at its height during the early stages of the contest. At one stage in April the show had 10.7 million.

ITV1's coverage of England's 1-0 victory over Norway in the Euro 2012 warm-up pulled in 4.7 million between 7pm and 10pm.

The warm weather is thought to be partly to blame for the lower audience as viewers take advantage of the sunshine.

Bo Bruce was quickly installed as the new favourite to win the show, with Coral offering odds of 6/4. Vince Kidd and Tyler James are joint second favourites at 11/4, while Leanne Mitchell is considered to be the outsider at 5/1.