Olly Murs says the gaffe that saw him that announce Monica Michael was going home on the X Factor before the official result was announced was "massively blown out of proportion".
The 31-year-old singer, who rose to fame after finishing as the runner-up in the sixth series of The X Factor in 2009, admitted to making "a massive f*** up" on the reality music show over the weekend but thinks the blunder needs to be put in perspective.
Speaking on the red carpet at the ITV Gala, Murs, who co-presents the show with Caroline Flack, said: "I think you need to put it in perspective with everything that's going on in the world. At the end of the day, I made a single mistake at a critical point in X Factor which was massively blown out of proportion."
Murs, who is rumoured to be dating 2008 X-Factor semi-finalist Diana Vickers, denied that his mistake proved the results of the show were a fix.
"I had no idea Monica was going until I got the envelope. And it was just a really awkward moment for me because I made a stupid mistake," he added.
He added that head judge Simon Cowell was rather nice about the situation, saying: "I was expecting a telling off if I'm honest but I didn't get one which was nice.I saw everyone after, I saw Monica, I saw the all judges and said I was so sorry and let myself down."
Murs and Flack took over as co-hosts on the ITV show at the beginning of this series, replacing Dermot O'Leary who has most recently been seen stepping in at the last moment to cover the BBC Children In Need appeal night show after Terry Wogan fell ill.
