The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent, contested by aspiring singers drawn from public auditions. Created by Simon Cowell, the show began in 2004 and has since aired annually from August/September until December. The show is produced by FremantleMedia's Thames (previously Talkback Thames) and Cowell's production company SycoTV. It is broadcast on the ITV network in the United Kingdom and simulcast on TV3 in the Republic of Ireland, with spin-off behind-the-scenes show The Xtra Factor screened on ITV2. The "X Factor" refers to the undefinable "something" that makes for star quality. The show 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.[1] The perceived similarity between the two shows later became the subject of a legal dispute.
The original judging panel consisted of Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne and Cowell. Brian Friedman replaced Walsh in series 4, which also saw Dannii Minogue join the panel. However, Friedman later left and was replaced by Walsh. Cheryl Cole took the place of Osbourne in series 5. Gary Barlow, Kelly Rowland and Tulisa Contostavlos joined the panel in series 8 as replacements for Cowell, Minogue and Cole, though Rowland left before series 9 and was replaced by Nicole Scherzinger. Osbourne returned to the panel in series 10, replacing Contostavlos. Cowell and Cole returned to replace Barlow and Osbourne in series 11, while Mel B replaced Scherzinger. The first three series of the show were presented by Kate Thornton. Since series 4, the show has been presented by Dermot O'Leary. Also, in series 10, The Xtra Factor presenter Caroline Flack served as a backstage presenter during the Saturday night live shows. 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 series 6 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. 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 ten winners of the show to date: Steve Brookstein, Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson, Alexandra Burke, Joe McElderry, Matt Cardle, Little Mix, James Arthur and Sam Bailey. Winners receive 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. From 2004 to 2010, and again in 2013, the winning contestant's single 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, 2010 and 2013. In 2011 and 2012, 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—Brookstein and McElderry both instead claimed the New Year's number one spot a week later in 2004 and 2009, respectively, while Little Mix achieved the top spot a week earlier in 2011. In 2012, Arthur achieved the number one spot a week earlier as well, but also claimed the New Year's number one spot, making him the first (and currently only) X Factor winner to regain the top spot with his winner's single.As of June 2014, a total of 35 number-one singles have been achieved by artists who have appeared on the show, such as Lewis, Burke, JLS, Olly Murs, Cher Lloyd, One Direction and Little Mix.
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