The X Factor (British TV series)
The X Factor is a British reality television music competition, and part of the global X Factor franchise created by Simon Cowell. Premiering on 4 September 2004, it was produced by Fremantle's British entertainment company, Thames, and Cowell's production company Syco Entertainment for ITV, as well as simulcast on Virgin Media One in Ireland. The programme ran for around 445 episodes across fifteen series, each one primarily broadcast late in the year, until its final episode in December 2018. The majority of episodes were presented by Dermot O'Leary, with some exceptions: the first three series were hosted by Kate Thornton, while Caroline Flack and Olly Murs hosted the show for the twelfth series.
Each year of the competition saw contestants of all ages and backgrounds auditioning for a place, in hopes of proving that they had singing talent. Auditionees attempted to do so before a panel of judges, each selected for their background in the music industry these have included Cowell, Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne, Dannii Minogue, Cheryl, Gary Barlow, Tulisa, Kelly Rowland, Nicole Scherzinger, Mel B, Rita Ora, and Robbie Williams. Those acts who survived the auditions entered a bootcamp stage in which the judges each took charge of a category of contestants to mentor, determining who may move on to the live stages of the contest, with a public vote in the live rounds eliminating these contestants one by one. The winner of the live show received a recording contract with record label Syco Music and a cash payment, though the majority was allocated to marketing and recording costs.
At the same time of its premiere, The X Factor was accompanied by spin-off behind-the-scenes show called The Xtra Factor on ITV2, which focused on the recent episode's performances; this was replaced in 2016 with an online spin-off show, Xtra Bites, on ITV Hub. The programme itself proved popular on British television, attracting high viewing figures at its peak over 14 million on average in the seventh series leading to the formation of an international franchise. In addition, many of its acts, including JLS, Olly Murs, One Direction, Little Mix, and Ella Henderson, went on to release singles that entered number-one in the UK charts.
From 2011, viewing figures began to decline, and Cowell opted to rest the programme in 2019, assigning two spin-offs as mini-series that year The X Factor: Celebrity and The X Factor: The Band. On 28 July 2021, ITV announced that there were no plans to air another series of the programme, effectively meaning it was cancelled.
History
The programme's format was devised by Sony Music executive Simon Cowell in 2004. The concept for The X Factor stemmed from his involvement as a judge on Pop Idol, another music talent competition that ITV aired from 2001 to 2003. While the programme had been massively successful in its own right, Cowell disliked the lack of control that he and the judges had on the contestant's progress several individuals, including fellow judge Pete Waterman, agreed with him that Michelle McManus who won the second series of Pop Idol had been unworthy to earn victory compared to others who had participated.Cowell eventually made plans to devise a new televised competition, in which he would own the television rights and thus maintain control on decisions held on the new programme. In 2004, ITV secured the rights to broadcast The X Factor after Cowell approached them with his concept, despite a legal challenge by Simon Fuller, the creator of Pop Idol, over perceived similarities between the two shows.
Format
Auditions
Each year's competition begins with auditions round, which consists of three stages held several months prior to the series premiere, and within venues around the United Kingdom; in some series, auditions were also allowed within the Republic of Ireland. Participants are required to provide a performance across each stage, focused on singing a piece from another artist to gauge their musical talent. The first round consists of auditionees performing before production staff either by application and appointment, or at "open" auditions that anyone can attend. Those wishing to apply could do so via postal or online applications, with The X Factor having no upper-age limit and no restriction on groups participating. If an auditionee passes this stage, they then move on to the second stage in which they perform before a senior production member. Both of these stages are not filmed, but shots of the crowds waiting to audition are spliced into audition episodes during final editing; the televised version can sometimes misrepresent the process in this fashion by implying that huge crowds all perform before the judges.Participants that make it to the third stage of auditions then conduct their performance and potential singing talent before the judges for that year's competition. To proceed into the next round of the contest, each participant must secure a majority vote from the judges, otherwise they are eliminated at this point; the judges themselves will usually comment on what they heard first, before they cast their vote. For the majority of series, the third stage auditions were conducted in a closed room in which performance were done without a backing track, while for other series, they were conducted before a live audience, with performances either done a cappella or over a backing track. Filming takes place during this stage, with the final edits for audition episodes focusing on the best, the worst and the most bizarre.
Bootcamp and judges' houses
In the second round, participants who reach this stage are sent to a "bootcamp" to refine their performances, while they are organised into categories based on the conditions of their application. The first category consists of men and women solo contestants aged under 24 both genders were conjoined in early series until split into individual gender in the fourth series with the minimum age allowed being 16. The second category consists of men and women solo acts aged 25 and older. The third and final category consists of group contestants, which include two or more contestants within each group. During this time, the producers decide on which judge for that year's competition is assigned to mentoring one of the category of participants. After the judges receive their assigned category, they then oversee two stages of performances from participants in each category, in which they must whittle down the number of participants to around six per category. The process varies across the programme's history in most cases, their performances during this stage determines whether they move on to the next round or not; in some series, audition tapes are reviewed before the round with the judges making their choices before this stage of the competition.Once the judges each have their selected participants for their category to mentor, these participants then move on to the "judges' houses" stage of the competition, which is held in private residences for each judge; according to Louis Walsh, these homes tend to not belong to the judges, but rented out for this purpose. In this stage, the participants each conduct a performance to their category's judge, who must decide which of their category's participants will proceed into the live rounds.
Both the bootcamp and the judges' homes stages of the contest are pre-recorded, though in some cases, either between the first and second stages of Bootcamp or prior to judges' houses, judges may look at certain rejected individual contestants who they feel have potential but may be better suited in a group, and in an attempt to give them a lifeline, then send these contestants into a room to form a number of different groups, each depending on size, height, fashion and chemistry. Lineup changes may also sometimes occur depending on what the judges feel the group is missing or which members they think work well with others. In the tenth series, the bootcamp stage was changed to a new format called "Six-Chair Challenge" in which participants had to secure a majority vote to sit in one of six empty chairs for their category, to move into the next stage; if all six seats were filled, the judge of that category must replace one of these participants with another they wish to see through. This new format, despite some tweaks, was not well received by viewers after its introduction.
Elimination stages and Final
Contestants who make it through both the second and third stages eventually enter the live rounds of the competition. By this stage they compete against each other over a series of elimination heats, with those that make it through competition to win in a live final, with these filmed in two parts in a fixed studio venue : a performance episode featuring all active participants; and a results episode, which includes a live or pre-recorded performances by celebrity performers. During this time, they move into shared accommodation while involved in the live episodes, sharing this with production staff; filming "behind-the-scenes" within the accommodation is frequently down and used in live episodes for The Xtra Factor. In some series, some additional participants are sometimes selected from the rejects to contestants as wildcards in these stages, alongside those who progressed to the live episodes.In these stages, each participant not only performs on live television, but also before the judges and a live studio audience. Their routine is often designed to fully judge their singing talent, appearance, personality and stage presence that may not have been noticeable during auditions, with their routine focusing a performance to a specific song originally a pop or contemporary hit from the charts in early series, before being later assigned based on the musical theme for the episode. Performance may sometimes be accompanied by backing dancers and musicians, and, in some cases, participants may also provide their own music and/or dance routines. At the end of each performance, the judges provide feedback on each performance, with their discussions often regularly adding entertainment value to each live episode. However, success is determined by the public vote in each episode. The system involves the same phone number, with exception for the last two digits which, beginning at "01", is assigned to each participant by order of appearance. The phone number is displayed twice for viewers once after a participant's performance is over, and a second time after all performances are completed and phone lines opened. Voting is conducted over a set time period, and closed before the results are announced of each stage of the live shows is shown, with the public vote results not detailing the actual number of votes or the ranked order.
In the elimination stages, the two contestants to be the lowest ranked in the public vote are revealed, and thus face off against each other in a "final showdown". This consists of conducting a new performance primarily for the judges while earlier series focused on reprisal of their earlier songs, producers changed this after the fourth series to allow them to pick new songs to perform to. After their performances are completed, the judges vote on which act to eliminate. When the fourth series saw the introduction of a fourth judge, the result was given the chance to be tied. In the event of a tie, the result goes to deadlock, where the earlier public vote determines the elimination of the contestabts in the final showdown which means, of the two contestants in the final showdown, the act who received the lowest number of votes in the public vote is eliminated. Sometimes in certain years, starting with the third series, due to an increased number of contestants in the live shows or reduced weeks, a double elimination is featured where the three contestants who were the lowest ranked in the public vote are revealed, with the act who received the lowest votes is immediately eliminated with the other two contestants in the bottom two perform in the final showdown for the judges' votes. After only five, or four, or three contestants remain, no final showdown is involved the act who has the lowest vote in the public vote is automatically eliminated. In the final, the public vote decides the winner, who receives at the end of the competition a £1 million recording contract with Syco Music, in association with Sony Music, which, by the beginning of the fifth series, included a £150,000 cash advance with the balance covering the costs of recording and marketing. Other highly placed contestants may also be offered recording deals, but this is not guaranteed.