The new judge, who replaced Kyle Sandilands on the show this year, made a controversial appearance earlier this week on Channel Ten’s talk show 9am With David And Kim.

When asked what each of the top three contestants’ strengths and weaknesses were, he was rapturous in his praise of Stan Walker and Hayley Warner before saying, “James, James is lovely; he is small and he wears nice clothes”.

9am’s guest host Ann-Maree Biggar jumped in to defend James.

“No, no, I think he’s a nice kid. He’s from the country, he’s done really well,” she said.

Jay Dee’s flippant remark has been seen as the latest in a long line of unfair criticisms.

James’ legion of fans have often complained through online forums that the judging panel shows bias against him by constantly picking on his age, song choice and dress sense.

James’ mum Marie agrees that the judges have made it clear they want Stan and Hayley in the top two.

“I’m the first to admit that Stan is amazing, and I believe they want Hayley there because they’ve never had a rock chick before,” she said.

“They’re all deserving of the title, but (the judges) don’t need to be so blatantly obvious that they want the other two.”

Marie believes the final decision will, and should, be made by the Australian public, not the judges.

James hasn’t been letting this controversy get to him as he’s been busy rehearsing for a monster show this Sunday.

If he is voted through to the top two he will perform four songs.

His three covers will be Everything by Michael Bublé, I Wanna by All American Rejects and Bad Day by Daniel Powter, one of Marie’s favourites.

He will also debut his winners single, a song handpicked for James by Sony which he recorded in the studio on Wednesday.

Today a dream will come true for James when he has a one-on-one mentoring session with Canadian crooner Michael Bublé.

Sportingbet Australia has James as the odds-on favourite to be eliminated on Sunday night.

In the betting race for the Australian Idol title, James is an outside chance on 11.00 with Hayley on 3.00 and Stan the favourite to win on 1.40.

James needs the Manning Valley’s support make it to the Sydney Opera House to compete in the final on November 22.

Vote by phoning 1902 55 55 61 or by texting “James” to 19 10 10.

You can vote as many times as you like until midnight tonight.

Australian Idol airs on Southern Cross Ten at 7.30pm Sunday.