Ofcom received complaints from 26 viewers following the episode, which was screened on November 12. In it, Walsh was shown having to decide between booting out Irish girl band the Conway Sisters or London soloist Maria. Walsh chose to eject Maria, for which he was berated by Osbourne.
As she railed against Walsh's decision, she said: "It's a travesty. It's about where they are from and not about talent. It's like the Irish mafia."
Her comments were greeted with a number of boos from the audience, prompting Osbourne to point out that she was part-Irish herself.
Later, Maria graciously defused the situation when she refused to blame Walsh's decision on the Conway Sisters' nationality, and said that she accepted he had decided "from the heart".
Ofcom rejected complaints that Osbourne's comments were racist and unacceptable. In its ruling, it said: "The use of the expression 'mafia' after almost any social group or nationality is a common occurrence in the English language... We therefore do not believe that the remark was a deliberate attempt to denigrate Irish people in general or that the programme went beyond generally accepted standards."
Osbourne seen throwing glasses of water over Walsh on the following week's show, and the Irishman later briefly quit the show. He was quickly talked around by the third judge, Simon Cowell, and returned to see his mentoree Shayne Ward win the series and score the Christmas number one with his 'That's My Goal' single.
Meanwhile, Cowell became the only judge to boot one of his acts by choice, kicking out the Conway Sisters instead of former stripper Chico.
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