13 October 2012
The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. Created by Simon Cowell, it began in September 2004 and is contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. It is the originator of the international The X Factor franchise. The eight series of the show to date have been broadcast from August/September through to December. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's Talkback Thames and Cowell's production company SYCOtv. The "X Factor" of the title refers to the undefinable "something" that makes for star quality. The show is broadcast on the ITV network in the United Kingdom and TV3 in Ireland, with spin-off behind-the-scenes show The Xtra Factor screened on ITV2. The X Factor was devised as a replacement for the highly successful Pop Idol, which was put on indefinite hiatus after its second series, largely because Cowell, who was a judge on Pop Idol, wished to launch a show to which he owned the television rights. The perceived similarity between the two shows later became the subject of a legal dispute.
The original judging panel was Cowell, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh. Dannii Minogue joined the panel in series 4, and Cheryl Cole replaced Osbourne in series 5 after her departure. After series 7, Cowell and Cole both left to judge the American version of the show whilst Minogue left the show due to commitments on Australia's Got Talent. Kelly Rowland, Tulisa Contostavlos and Gary Barlow then joined Walsh on the judging panel for series 8, though Rowland announced she would not return for series 9 and was replaced by Nicole Scherzinger. In the initial televised audition phase of the show, contestants sang in an audition room in front of just the judges. From series 6 onwards, auditionees sing on a stage in front of the judges and a live audience. 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 eight winners to date: Steve Brookstein, Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson, Alexandra Burke, Joe McElderry, Matt Cardle and Little Mix. The winning contestant's single from 2004 till 2010 was released in time for the end of year chart battle for the UK's Christmas number one, a spot which was gained in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. In 2011, the winner's single was released a week earlier. All of the winners' singles have gone on to achieve the number one chart position nevertheless, with Brookstein and McElderry going on to claim the New Year's number one spot a week later instead, and Little Mix a week earlier. As of January 2012, a total of 28 number-one singles have been released by artists who have appeared on the show. The all-new X Factor champion receives a recording contract with record label Syco Music with a stated value of £1 million. This includes a cash payment to the winner, but the majority is allocated to marketing and recording costs.
The show is the biggest television talent competition in Europe and has proved hugely popular with the public. Series 6 attracted 200,000 auditionees and peaked at 19.7 million UK viewers (a 63.2% audience share). 10 million votes were cast in the series 6 final as well. On 18 October 2010, ITV announced that Cowell had signed a three-year contract renewing The X Factor until 2013.
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