X Factor's Frankie Cocozza flap puts strain on Twitter - The Guardian

One week The X Factor is losing ratings in a torrent of criticism, phoney yarns and stale hype. Cue Simon Cowell, talking to the Observer a few years ago: "I always think there is a limit, when the public says 'I'm bored with you now.' And I don't think that time is too far away."

But the next week it's back on top, "Funtime Frankie" is out on his tin ear (or over-coked nose), and the Keynote people who measure social media traffic issue "a detailed study of the performance and availability of Twitter in the UK" showing that at 1.15pm on Tuesday (the Frankie boot moment) the average time it took Twitter to load jumped from 3.05 seconds to 15.79 seconds. Worse still, "as well as the site performing slowly, many visitors were unable to access Twitter at all at this time, with availability dropping from 100% at 1pm to 66.67% at 1.30".

Which gives any would-be dictator planning a very British coup one solid hint. Sack the entire cast of The X Factor at 1.15pm, then storm the television stations.