The X Factor (American TV series) season 3
The third and final season of the American music competition television show The X Factor premiered on Fox on September 11, 2013, and ended on December 19, 2013. This season was hosted by Mario Lopez. Simon Cowell and Demi Lovato returned to the judging panel, while Kelly Rowland and Paulina Rubio joined the panel as replacements for the departing judges.
Producer auditions began on March 6, 2013, in Los Angeles, and ended on May 4, 2013, in Denver. The judges auditions, which are televised, began on May 21, 2013, in Charleston, and ended on July 12, 2013, in Los Angeles. New for this season is the removal of the boot camp and judges' houses rounds of the competition which have been replaced with a new middle section, more reminiscent of the live shows.
On December 19, 2013, Alex & Sierra won the show, as mentored by Cowell. On February 7, 2014, Cowell announced he was returning to the UK show to judge the 2014 UK series, which was followed by Fox announcing that they would not be renewing the show for a fourth season.
Alex and Sierra's victory on X Factor, along with three other wins: Candice Glover won American Idol season 12, Danielle Bradbery won season 4 of The Voice USA, Tessanne Chin won season 5 of The Voice USA, making those victories a quadruple for female artists, remained the last time that a female artist had won a season in any major singing competition in North America, excluding Got Talent franchises, until Alisan Porter won season 10 of The Voice USA in May 2016.
Judges and hosts
On October 22, 2012, it was announced that The X Factor would be returning for a third season, with Simon Cowell confirmed to be returning. On December 14, 2012, L.A. Reid announced he would not return to the show for its third season, as he wished to refocus his work on his record company, Epic Records. Britney Spears stated her intentions on returning to the show for its third season, but she eventually did not return, in order to focus on her music career.Following the conclusion of season two, Demi Lovato questioned whether she would return for another season, or instead focus on her own career as a performer, stating, "I have no idea what's gonna happen next season, and I don't think anybody does." On March 28, 2013, it was confirmed that Lovato would return. On April 22, it was confirmed by Fox that Mario Lopez would be returning to host season three, along with the news of Khloé Kardashian not returning as co-host.
Rumors passed that Reba McEntire and Jennifer Love Hewitt would be judges.
Eventually, Cowell confirmed via his Twitter account that the full judging panel would be announced on May 20, 2013, with auditions beginning the next day. On that same day, Fox confirmed that Destiny's Child member and judge on the 2011 series of the UK show, Kelly Rowland, and Mexican singer and former La Voz... México judge Paulina Rubio had been hired to replace Reid and Spears.
Selection process
Auditions
In addition to having online auditions, it was announced at the conclusion of season 2 that auditions for season 3 would be held throughout the country in Charleston, South Carolina; Denver, Colorado; Long Island, New York; Los Angeles, California and New Orleans, Louisiana. On the "Registration and Audition Rules" document on The X Factors website about the auditions, it was announced where the auditions were going to be taking place.Deliberations
Instead of the traditional bootcamp stages, a deliberation stage was introduced to cut down the "yes" from the auditions to perform at Four-chair challenge. The judges cut the acts from 218 to 40. This took place on July 31, 2013.After the Deliberation and Reveal Stages, but before the start of the four-chair challenge, the judges found out their categories and they are as follows: Rowland has the Overs, Rubio has the Boys, Lovato has the Girls and Cowell has the groups. They were revealed at Shrine Auditorium.
Four-chair challenge
For this season of The X Factor, Cowell confirmed that the boot camp and judges' houses sections of the competition, which traditionally followed the audition rounds, had been dropped and replaced with a brand new stage called "The Four-Chair challenge", which took place at the Shrine Auditorium and was filmed over 2 days in September 2013. Speaking on the change, he said "It was the one element of the show I wasn't happy with, and it looked too similar to what everybody else is doing." He went on to describe the new "middle section" as "really dramatic, very tough on us and the contestants, and very high pressure", and compared the new round as similar to the live shows.This season, the categories did not follow the age-based format from season two but rather the format from season one: Boys, Girls, Over 25s and Groups. Rowland mentored Over 25s, Lovato the Girls, Rubio the Boys, and for the second season in a row, Cowell mentored the Groups. Groups Restless Road, Sweet Suspense, and Forever in Your Mind all consist of contestants who originally auditioned as soloists.
The four-chair challenge episodes were broadcast on two 2-hour Wednesdays and two 1-hour Thursdays shows on October 2, 3, 9 and 10.
Key:
| Episode | Category | Act | Order | Song | Mentor's decision | Switched with |
| Episode 7 | Over 25s | Victoria Carriger | 1 | "Make You Feel My Love" | Put in chair 1 | — |
| Episode 7 | Over 25s | Kristine Mirelle | 2 | "Oops!... I Did It Again" | Put in chair 2 | — |
| Episode 7 | Over 25s | Jeff Gutt | 3 | "Amazing Grace" | Put in chair 3 | — |
| Episode 7 | Over 25s | Rachel Potter | 4 | "Irreplaceable" | Put in chair 4 | — |
| Episode 7 | Over 25s | Lorie Moore | 5 | "I'll Make Love to You" | Put in chair 2 | Kristine Mirelle |
| Episode 7 | Over 25s | Allison Davis | 6 | "Tik Tok" / "Push It" | Eliminated | — |
| Episode 7 | Over 25s | Jeff Brinkman | 7 | "Without You" | Put in chair 1 | Victoria Carriger |
| Episode 7 | Over 25s | Denny Smith | 8 | "In the Midnight Hour" | Eliminated | — |
| Episode 7 | Over 25s | James Kenney | 9 | "Lean on Me" | Put in chair 1 | Jeff Brinkman |
| Episode 7 | Over 25s | Lillie McCloud | 10 | "A House Is Not a Home" | Put in chair 2 | Lorie Moore |
| Episode 7 | Girls | Bree Randall | 11 | "Glad You Came" | Put in chair 1 | — |
| Episode 7 | Girls | Khaya Cohen | 12 | "Locked Out of Heaven" | Put in chair 2 | — |
| Episode 7 | Girls | Jamie Pineda | 13 | "Don't Speak" | Put in chair 3 | — |
| Episode 7 | Girls | Ashly Williams | 14 | "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" | Put in chair 4 | — |
| Episode 8 | Girls | Simone Torres | 15 | "A Change Is Gonna Come" | Put in chair 1 | Bree Randall |
| Episode 8 | Girls | Danie Geimer | 16 | "Georgia on My Mind" | Put in chair 1 | Simone Torres |
| Episode 8 | Girls | Rylie Brown | 17 | "Angels" | Eliminated | — |
| Episode 8 | Girls | Primrose Martin | 18 | "Blame It on the Boogie" | Eliminated | — |
| Episode 8 | Girls | Rion Paige | 19 | "I Won't Let Go" | Put in chair 4 | Ashly Williams |
| Episode 8 | Girls | Ellona Santiago | 20 | "Clarity" | Put in chair 3 | Jamie Pineda |
| Episode 9 | Boys | Al Calderon | 21 | "Call Me Maybe" | Put in chair 1 | — |
| Episode 9 | Boys | Isaiah Alston | 22 | "The Greatest Love of All" | Eliminated | — |
| Episode 9 | Boys | Isaac Tauaefa | 23 | "Bubbly" | Eliminated | — |
| Episode 9 | Boys | Carlos Guevara | 24 | "Ain't No Sunshine" | Put in chair 2 | — |
| Episode 9 | Boys | Stone Martin | 25 | "Torn" | Put in chair 3 | — |
| Episode 9 | Boys | Chase Goehring | 26 | "Airplanes" | Put in chair 4 | — |
| Episode 9 | Boys | Tim Olstad | 27 | "The Climb" | Put in chair 3 | Stone Martin |
| Episode 9 | Boys | Carlito Olivero | 28 | "Dreaming of You" | Put in chair 4 | Chase Goehring |
| Episode 9 | Boys | Timmy Thames | 29 | "The New Girl in Town" | Put in chair 3 | Tim Olstad |
| Episode 9 | Boys | Tim Olstad | N/A | N/A | Put in chair 1 | Al Calderon |
| Episode 9 | Boys | Josh Levi | 30 | "I Can't Make You Love Me" | Put in chair 3 | Timmy Thames |
| Episode 9 | Groups | Girls United | 31 | "Yeah 3x" | Put in chair 1 | — |
| Episode 9 | Groups | Wild Thingz | 32 | "Party Rock Anthem" | Put in chair 2 | — |
| Episode 9 | Groups | Glamour | 33 | "When I'm Gone" | Put in chair 3 | — |
| Episode 9 | Groups | Restless Road | 34 | "Somebody Like You" | Put in chair 4 | — |
| Episode 10 | Groups | Sweet Suspense | 35 | "Wishing on a Star" | Put in chair 2 | Wild Thingz |
| Episode 10 | Groups | Yellow House Canyon | 36 | "Hell on Heels" | Eliminated | — |
| Episode 10 | Groups | Forever in Your Mind | 37 | "Lovebug" | Put in chair 3 | Glamour |
| Episode 10 | Groups | Good News | 38 | "Landslide" | Eliminated | — |
| Episode 10 | Groups | Alex & Sierra | 39 | "You're the One That I Want" | Put in chair 1 | Girls United |
| Episode 10 | Groups | RoXxy Montana | 40 | "Man in the Mirror" | Put in chair 3 | Forever in Your Mind |
Rubio initially switched out Tim Olstad for Timmy Thames, but after some consideration brought him back and instead switched out Al Calderon.