The X Factor

The X Factor is a British reality television music competition to find new singing talent. Created by Simon Cowell, the show began broadcasting on 4 September 2004 with 445 episodes broadcast over fifteen series as of 2 December 2018. The show is produced by Fremantle's Thames and Cowell's production company Syco Entertainment. It is broadcast on ITV in the UK and simulcast on Virgin Media One in Ireland. "X Factor" refers to the undefinable "something" that makes for star quality. The first three series were presented by Kate Thornton. Since series four, with the exception of series twelve (which was presented by Caroline Flack and Olly Murs) and series sixteen's live shows (which were presented by Ant and Dec), the show has been presented by Dermot O'Leary. The X Factor previously had a spin-off behind-the-scenes show called The Xtra Factor. This aired until 2016. It was replaced by an online spin-off show Xtra Bites exclusively on the ITV Hub. The main show was rested in 2019, with Cowell and ITV opting to broadcast The X Factor: Celebrity and The X Factor: All Stars as mini-series instead. At present, the programme is contracted to run until 2022. The original judging panel consisted of Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourneand Cowell. In 2005, Paula Abdul joined the show as a guest judge whilst Osbourne was away then joined the panel in 2006 for three sets of auditions. Brian Friedman briefly replaced Walsh in the fourth series, which also saw Dannii Minogue join the panel. Friedman left during the auditions, and Walsh replaced Friedman. Cheryl Colereplaced Osbourne in the fifth series. Gary Barlow, Kelly Rowland andTulisa joined the panel in the eighth series as replacements for Cowell, Minogue and Cole. Rowland left before the ninth series and was replaced by Nicole Scherzinger. Osbourne returned to the panel in the tenth series, replacing Tulisa. Cowell and Cole (later Fernandez-Versini) returned to replace Barlow and Osbourne in eleventh series, while Mel B replaced Scherzinger. In the twelfth series, Mel B and Walsh were replaced by Rita Ora and Nick Grimshaw. For thethirteenth and fourteenth series, Walsh, Osbourne and Scherzinger returned, replacing Grimshaw, Fernandez-Versini and Ora. Following the conclusion of the latter series, Walsh and Scherzinger quit after thirteen and four years respectively, as a judge, and Osbourne announced she would only return for the live shows; before it was later announced that she quit. Louis Tomlinson, Ayda Field (credited as Ayda Williams) and Robbie Williams joined Cowell for the fifteenth series.

The show is split into different stages, following the contestants from auditions through to the final. In the original televised audition stage of the show, contestants sang in an audition room in front of just the judges, but from the sixth series onwards auditionees sing on a stage in front of the judges and a live audience. In series 10 and 11, both auditions formats were used. In series 12, the room auditions were scrapped, leaving just the arena auditions. The room auditions were revived in series 13, and no arena auditions followed. Successful auditionees go through to "bootcamp" and then to "judges' houses", where judges narrow down the acts in their category down to three or four acts to mentor for the live shows, where the public vote for their favourite acts following weekly live performances by the contestants. There have been 15 winners of the show to date: Steve Brookstein,Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson, Alexandra Burke, Joe McElderry, Matt Cardle, Little Mix, James Arthur, Sam Bailey, Ben Haenow, Louisa Johnson, Matt Terry, Rak-Su and Dalton Harris. Winners receive a recording contract with record label Syco Musicwith a stated value of £1 million. This includes a cash payment to the winner, but the majority is allocated to marketing and recording costs.[5]

From 2004 to 2010, and again in 2013 and 2014, the winning contestant's single was released in time for the end-of-year chart battle for the UK's Christmas number one (in 2005 through to 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2014, the winner's single has reached number one). As of November 2016, 41 number-one singles have been achieved byartists who have appeared on the show, such as Lewis, Burke, JLS,Diana Vickers, Olly Murs, Cher Lloyd, One Direction, Little Mix, Arthur and Ella Henderson. The show is the originator of the internationalThe X Factor franchise. A prominent show in British popular culture,The X Factor proved hugely popular with the public during its peak.[6] The sixth series in 2009 peaked at 19.7 million UK viewers (a 63.2% audience share).[7]