The X Factor (British TV series) series 12
The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. The twelfth series began airing on ITV on 29 August 2015 and ended on 13 December 2015. The judges were Simon Cowell, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, who returned for their respective ninth and fifth series as judges, series 9 guest judge and former The Voice UK coach Rita Ora, and BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw, with Grimshaw and Ora replacing Louis Walsh, the only judge who had been on the show from its inception in 2004, and Mel B. It was presented by Caroline Flack and Olly Murs, who had both previously co-presented spin-off show The Xtra Factor on ITV2 and replaced Dermot O'Leary, who left after eight series. Rochelle Humes and Melvin Odoom presented The Xtra Factor, replacing Sarah-Jane Crawford. Louisa Johnson was announced as the winner on 13 December 2015, making Ora the winning mentor.
Judges, Presenters and Other Personnel
In March 2015, Simon Cowell was confirmed to return as a judge for the twelfth series, his ninth on the show. In April 2015, Louis Walsh cited his desire to quit the show and return to management, and that it would take serious thought for him to return for series 12. He also revealed that he was in the dark about whom Cowell had the intentions of bringing onto the panel. On April 30, 2015, it was reported that Cowell was interested in having more "freshed faced" judges on the series, with Canadian singer Carly Rae Jepsen rumoured to be pursued by him. Jepsen responded to The Daily Star the same day saying: "If I got to live in London, then I’d be tempted to be a judge on one of your singing shows. I love the shopping and the people in London." On 14 May 2015, Walsh confirmed his exit from the show after 11 series on the judging panel, stating, "The truth is I've done it for 11 years; I never thought I would even be on TV for four or five. To get 10 was great, to get 11 was amazing – I'm not hanging around for them this year." He later continued, "But I wasn't sacked, I haven't been hired and I'm not hanging around." It was reported that former contestants Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik were being approached for full time judging roles, Tomlinson later served as a guest mentor with Cowell during the Judges Houses stage of the competition this season, and later served one season as a judge during series 15 in 2018.On 16 June, Cheryl Fernandez-Versini was confirmed to be returning for her fifth series followed by new judges, series 9 guest judge and The Voice UK coach Rita Ora, and BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw, replacing Mel B and Walsh, who left the show after only one series.
On 27 March 2015, Dermot O'Leary announced that he was quitting the show, after eight series, to pursue other projects. On 16 April, ITV confirmed that former contestant Olly Murs and Caroline Flack would take over presenting the show, having worked together as hosts before on The Xtra Factor. They became the first duo to host the show.
On 18 June 2015, it was confirmed that The Saturdays singer Rochelle Humes and Kiss FM DJ Melvin Odoom would be the new hosts of The Xtra Factor.
The show's announcer Peter Dickson announced his departure from the show on 28 July 2015. Dickson was later replaced by Redd Pepper for this series, who was only present for Judges' Houses. However, on 30 October 2015, Dickson confirmed that he would return to The X Factor for the live shows.
Selection process
Eligibility
The minimum age this year was increased back to 16, after being lowered to 14 in the previous series.Auditions
Mobile auditions
In addition to the producers' auditions, the "Mobile Audition Tour" took place up and down the UK and Ireland throughout March and April. Auditions ran between 30 March and 23 May 2015, and visited Aberdeen, Skegness, Bradford, Huddersfield, Dundee, Sheffield, Peterborough, Northampton, Stirling, Cambridge, Middlesbrough, Nottingham, Scarborough, Norwich, Leicester, Ipswich, Coventry, York, Kingston upon Hull, Oxford, Chelmsford, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Southend-on-Sea, Belfast, Bangor, Southampton, Isle of Man, Swansea, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Carlisle, Brighton, Truro, Isle of Wight, Wigan, Plymouth, Broadstairs, Margate, Stoke-on-Trent, Exeter, Essex and Yeovil.Open auditions
Producers auditions commenced on 8 April in Dublin and ended on 7 June in London.| Audition city | Open audition date | Open audition venue |
| Dublin | 8–9 April 2015 | Croke Park |
| Newcastle | 11–12 April 2015 | St. James' Park |
| Leeds | 16–17 April 2015 | Elland Road |
| Birmingham | 18–19 April 2015 | St Andrew's |
| Glasgow | 23–24 April 2015 | Ibrox Stadium |
| Liverpool | 26–27 April 2015 | ACC Liverpool |
| Cardiff | 29–30 April 2015 | Mercure Holland House |
| Manchester | 10 May 2015 | EventCity |
| London | 7 June 2015 | The SSE Arena, Wembley |
Judges' auditions
This series, the judges only visited Manchester and London on the audition tour, rather than going all around the UK as in previous series. The auditions were originally scheduled to begin in Manchester on 6 July; however, following the death of Cowell's mother on 5 July, the first two days of auditions were postponed to 8 July. As a result, a new day of auditions was announced for 9 July, but this last-minute addition meant that both Ora and Flack were absent due to prior commitments, resulting in just three judges that day and Murs having to host solo. The first day of London auditions were scheduled to be recorded on 14 July, but were cancelled due to the aforementioned bereavement. Flack was also absent from filming on 15 July due to her filming the Love Island final in Spain. Grimshaw had to leave the evening sessions of auditions early due to the session over-running and his contract obligated him to have a certain amount of rest between finishing filming and being on BBC Radio 1 the following morning. Filming was delayed on 20 July due to Fernandez-Versini suffering a burns injury to her foot after stepping on some hair tongs. Cowell was absent from the first session on 17 July due to illness. Ora was again absent from filming on 22 July, due to performing a prearranged gig in Italy.Notable returning audition contestants included Havva Rebke, who reached bootcamp in series 9; Monica Michael, who was controversially eliminated during the six chair challenge in series 11; and Rumour Has It, who reached judges' houses in series 11 as an unnamed girl group created by the judges. Other notable auditionees included MJ Mytton Sanneh and Mitchell Zhangazha members of boy band Tribe previously finished third in the fifth series of Britain’s Got Talent as members of New Bounce.
| City | Date | Venue | Absent judges |
| Manchester | 8–9 July 2015 | EventCity | Rita Ora |
| London | 15–17 July 2015 | The SSE Arena, Wembley | Simon Cowell |
| London | 19–23 July 2015 | The SSE Arena, Wembley | Rita Ora |
Bootcamp
Bootcamp took place from 27 to 31 July, and was recorded at The Grove Hotel, Watford, having taken place at The SSE Arena, Wembley every other series. The first challenge of bootcamp was to perform in groups of five contestants, with a mix of at least three categories in each group, and perform a song from a list. The judges would decide immediately after each performance which of the 180 contestants would pass the challenge and which would be eliminated. For the second challenge of bootcamp, the 93 successful contestants were to perform a solo performance to the judges, who gave little or no feedback to them. At the end of the challenge, the judges decided on who would be successful and who would be eliminated. Grimshaw was absent from the second day of the challenge due to his commitments with BBC Radio 1, although partially assisted Cowell, Fernandez-Versini and Ora with their decisions via Skype video link. The 64 contestants that passed through this stage went on to face the six-chair challenge. It was reported that the standard of auditions were so high that acts who got a "yes" from all four judges were not necessarily guaranteed a place at bootcamp.For the first time in X Factor history, viewers voted via hashtags on Twitter to determine which of the judges was allocated each of the four categories. The judges learnt the result during the six-seat challenge. Ora was in charge of the Girls, Cowell was assigned the Over 27s, Fernandez-Versini had the Groups and Grimshaw looked after the Boys.
Bootcamp aired over two episodes on 20 and 27 September.
Six-chair challenge
The six-chair challenge took place on 1 and 2 September, at The SSE Arena, Wembley. 64 contestants faced the six-chair challenge, with 16 in the Girls category, 16 in the Boys, 17 in the Over 27s, and 15 in the Groups. The challenge was broadcast on 4, 11 and 18 October. At the start of the challenge, the judges discovered which categories they would mentor: Ora was given the Girls, Cowell was given Over 27s, Fernandez-Versini was given the Groups and Grimshaw was given the Boys.Tom Bleasby was originally put through, but it was reported on 12 October that he had withdrawn for personal reasons. On 15 October, it was announced that Mason Noise would replace Bleasby at Judges' Houses.
On 20 October, it was revealed that all the groups would undergo name changes due to copyright reasons. The new names were revealed as 4th Impact, Alien Uncovered, BEKLN Mile, Melody Stone, New Kings Order and Reggie 'n' Bollie