The X Factor (Australian TV series) season 4

The X Factor was an Australian television reality music competition, based on the original UK series, to find new singing talent; the winner of which received a Sony Music Australia recording contract and a new car. The fourth season premiered on the Seven Network on 20 August 2012 and ended on 20 November 2012. The winner was Samantha Jade and her winner's single "What You've Done to Me" was released after the final. Jade was mentored throughout by Guy Sebastian, who won as mentor for the second year in a row. The main live shows was presented by Luke Jacobz, while season three finalist Johnny Ruffo presented the digital live streaming show The X Stream. Mel B, Guy Sebastian, Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Ronan Keating returned as judges.
The competition was split into several stages: auditions, super bootcamp, home visits and live shows. Auditions in front of the show's producers took place throughout February and March 2012. The successful auditionees chosen by the producers were then invited back to the last set of auditions that took place in front of the judges and a live studio audience in May 2012. After the auditions was super bootcamp, where all four judges worked together and collectively chose 24 acts, including six from each of the four categories: Boys, Girls, Over 25s and Groups. Following super bootcamp was the home visits stage, where each of the judges reduced their six acts to three, with help from guest mentors Alicia Keys, Kesha, One Direction and Usher. The live shows began on 17 September 2012.
The fourth season sparked controversy when contestant Josh Brookes was disqualified from The X Factor for behaving "in an inappropriate manner" on social media. He was later replaced by Carmelo Munzone. The grand final decider was watched by 1.92 million people, making it the highest rated television episode of the season.

Judges

In 2012 it was confirmed that Mel B, Sebastian, Bassingthwaighte and Keating would return for the series.

Selection process

Auditions

Auditions in front of the show's producers began in February 2012 in seven cities: Hobart, Launceston, Albury, Dubbo, Darwin, Cairns, Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne. Online auditions were also introduced into the season for the acts who missed out on auditioning in front of the producers. The successful auditionees chosen by the producers were then invited back to the last set of auditions that took place in front of the judges and a live studio audience. These auditions were held in three cities: Melbourne, Gold Coast and Sydney.

Super bootcamp

The super bootcamp stage of the competition saw all four judges working together, unlike in previous series where they disband to manage their own categories. It was filmed on 28, 29 and 30 May 2012. The first day saw the judges split the acts into four categories: Boys, Girls, Over 25s and Groups. Each category was given a list of four songs which they had to choose from to perform for the judges. At the end of the day, a third of the acts were sent home. On the second day, the remaining 74 acts were put into ensembles and were each given a song which they had to learn and perform for the judges. Each ensemble received vocal coaching from Gary Pinto and choreography practice from Squared Division. At the end of day, the judges sent 28 acts home. On the third day, the remaining 46 acts each individually performed one song to a live audience of one thousand. On the fourth day of super bootcamp, the judges narrowed down the acts to 24. Five from the Boys and six rejected soloists from the Girls categories were asked by the judges to form two groups, The Collective and Black Ivory.
The 24 successful acts were:

Boys: Josh Brookes, Matt Cenere, Matt Gresham, Adil Memon, Carmelo Munzone, Jason Owen
Girls: Bella Ferraro, Shiane Hawke, Bella Hunter, Morgan Sheather, Angel Tupai, Vendulka Wichta
Over 25s: Danielle Blakey, Chris Cayzer, Samantha Jade, Justin Standley, Rob Vegas, Nathaniel Willemse
Groups: Black Ivory, D&D, Fourtunate, Good Question, The Collective, What About Tonight
Home visits

The final round of the selection process, the home visits, saw the remaining 24 acts travel to exclusive locations around the world to find out which judge would become their mentor. The Boys, Girls and Over 25s travelled to New York City, while the Groups visited London. Each judge reduced their six acts to three, with help from celebrity guest mentors. The Boys were assigned to Mel B and mentored by Usher, the Girls were assigned to Natalie Bassingthwaighte and mentored by Kesha, the Over 25s were assigned to Guy Sebastian and mentored by Alicia Keys, and the Groups were assigned to Ronan Keating and mentored by One Direction. During the first day of home visits, each act was given a private mentoring session with their mentor, ahead of their solo performance in front of their mentor and guest mentor the next day. After, the judges along with their guest mentors, narrowed down the contestants to three each.

Judge	Category	Location	Assistant	Contestants eliminated
Mel B	Boys	New York City	Usher	Matt Cenere, Matt Gresham, Carmelo Munzone
Bassingthwaighte	Girls	New York City	Kesha	Bella Hunter, Morgan Sheather, Vendulka Wichta
Sebastian	Over 25s	New York City	Alicia Keys	Danielle Blakey, Chris Cayzer, Rob Vegas
Keating	Groups	London	One Direction	Black Ivory, D&D, Good Question

Acts

Key:

Act	Age	Hometown	Category	Result
Samantha Jade	25	Perth, Western Australia	Over 25s	Winner
Jason Owen	18	Dubbo, New South Wales	Boys	Runner-Up
The Collective	17–22	Various	Groups	3rd Place
Bella Ferraro	18	Sydney, New South Wales	Girls	4th Place
Shiane Hawke	14	Darwin, Northern Territory	Girls	5th Place
Nathaniel Willemse	27	South Africa/Melbourne	Over 25s	6th Place
Fourtunate	17–20	Sydney, New South Wales	Groups	7th Place
Angel Tupai	19	Parramatta, New South Wales	Girls	8th Place
Carmelo Munzone	23	Sydney, New South Wales	Boys	9th Place
Justin Standley	41	Bundaberg	Over 25s	10th Place
What About Tonight	15–19	Various	Groups	11th Place
Josh Brooks	20	Perth, Western Australia	Boys	12th Place
Adil Memon	18	Ipswich, Queensland	Boys	13th Place

Live shows

Results summary

;Colour key
Act in Boys

Act in Girls

Act in Over 25s

Act in Groups

;Notes

– Josh Brookes was ejected from the show due to rule violations. Carmelo Munzone replaced him on the second live show.
– Sebastian was not present for this results show. As one of his acts was in the bottom two, a vote against What About Tonight was cast on Sebastian's behalf on the typical assumption that Sebastian would have voted against What About Tonight.
Live show details

Week 1 (17/18 September)

Theme: Judges' Choice
Celebrity performers: Ronan Keating and Guy Sebastian featuring Lupe Fiasco
Group performance: "Call Me Maybe"

; Judges' vote to eliminate

Sebastian: Adil Memon – backed his own act, Samantha Jade.
Mel B: Samantha Jade – backed her own act, Adil Memon.
Bassingthwaighte: Adil Memon – stated that Jade had improved more.
Keating: Adil Memon – based on the final showdown performance.

; Notes

The Collective's performance of "Domino" debuted on the ARIA Singles Chart at number 35 on 24 September 2012.
Week 2 (25/26 September)
Theme: Party All Night
Celebrity performers: James Morrison and The Script
Group performance: "R.I.P."/"How We Do " with Rita Ora

;Judges' vote to eliminate

Sebastian: What About Tonight – despite his absence in the results show, an automatic vote was cast to save Nathaniel Willemse based on the usual assumption that he would have voted to save his own act.
Keating: Nathaniel Willemse – backed his own act, What About Tonight.
Bassingthwaighte: What About Tonight – stated she was not voting strategically.
Mel B: Nathaniel Williemse – could not decide and sent the result to deadlock.

With the acts in the bottom two receiving two votes each, the result went to deadlock and reverted to the earlier public vote. What About Tonight were eliminated as the act with the fewest public votes.
;Notes

This week's live shows aired on Tuesday and Wednesday nights due to the Seven Network's coverage of the 2012 Brownlow Medal.
Sebastian was absent from the results show due to him traveling to New York to perform "Battle Scars" on the Late Show with David Letterman.
On 30 September 2012, the performances of three finalists entered the ARIA Singles Chart. The Collective's performance of "Footloose" debuted at number 41, Bella Ferraro's performance of "What Makes You Beautiful" debuted at number 62, and What About Tonight's performance of "Year 3000" debuted at number 97.
Josh Brookes was disqualified from the show and was replaced by Carmelo Munzone.