THE X Factor suffered a huge blunder as Danny Tetley was forced to restart his performance after being introduced as Anthony Russell.

Benidorm club singer Danny called a halt to his performance saying the mistake had thrown him off.

He demanded a re-start and cracked straight on to sing Mariah Carey's Hero winning praise from both viewers and the judges.

Simon Cowell heaped praise on him and said the blunder made him even better.

He told him: "Don't feel bad about what happened because it made you better in my opinion, so who cares?"

Louis Tomlinson added: "The pressure of what just happened to you and you picked yourself up and delivered that vocal, you should be really proud of yourself."

Host Dermot O'Learly went on to apologise for the mistake before joking about it.

Viewers were outraged for Danny for the blunder.

One said: "@TheXFactor bless, poor Danny, that wrong intro has really thrown him. Hope he can pull it back x"

A second added: "What a cock up poor Danny that’ll be shown on blunder programmes for years now #XFactor"

A third wrong: "Well #Xfactor, you totally cocked up there & poor Danny has to start again because of it."

Another commented: "Poor Danny. That was so awkward! @TheXFactor #XFactor"