X Factor Indonesia

The X Factor Indonesia is an Indonesian reality television music competition to find new singing talent, contested by aspiring singers drawn from public audition. The show was adopted from British The X Factor and produced by FremantleMedia and Cowell's production company Syco. It is broadcast on RCTI. In 2014, X Factor Indonesia won the Panasonic Gobel Awards for the category Talent and Best Reality Show.
As part of British [The X Factor|The X Factor franchise], the show's format has numerous differences from rival shows such as Indonesian Idol. X Factor Indonesia is open to both solo artists and groups and has no upper age limit. For the first three seasons, each judge is assigned one of four categories —boys between 15 and 25, girls between 15 and 25, individuals 26 and over, or groups. Starting from the fourth season, each judge is assigned one contestant from three categories—Male, female, and group.
Throughout the live shows, the judges act as mentors to their category, helping to decide song choices, styling, and staging, while judging contestants from the other categories; they also compete to ensure that their act wins the competition, thus making them the winning judge. The original judging panel lineup consisted of Ahmad Dhani, Rossa, Anggun, and Bebi Romeo, with Robby Purba as the sole host. The show has produced four winners to date: Fatin Shidqia, Jebe & Petty, Alvin Jonathan, and Peter Holly.
After a six-year hiatus, on July 10, 2021, Fremantle Indonesia announced that X Factor Indonesia will return with the third season.

History

Although Indonesian Idol went on to become an enormous success and the number one show in Indonesia for seven consecutive seasons, the original United Kingdom version, Pop Idol, did not fare so well. Cowell, who was a judge on Pop Idol, wished to launch a show that he owned the rights to. Pop Idols first series was massively successful, and while the second series was also successful, the viewer figure for its finale dropped. Some—including Pop Idol judge Pete Waterman— considered Michelle McManus an unworthy winner. In 2004, Pop Idol was axed and ITV announced a new show created by former Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell, with no involvement from Idol creator Simon Fuller—The X Factor. Its ratings were average in the first couple of series, but by the sixth series in 2009, ratings were hitting 10 million each week.
In March 2010, RCTI, the broadcaster of Indonesian Idol, signed the deal to launch the Indonesian version of The X Factor. Initially, X Factor Indonesia was planned as a replacement for Indonesian Idol in 2013, but due to the enormous success of the seventh season in 2012, RCTI and FremantleMedia decided to continue collaborating both the X Factor Indonesia and Indonesian Idol with each playing on alternate years. To repeat the success of seventh season of Indonesian Idol, Fabian Dharmawan from RCTI was appointed to be the Executive Producer for RCTI for the first season of the X Factor Indonesia, Head of Entertainment of FremantleMedia, Glenn Sims together with Virgita Ruchiman and Ken Irawati serving as Executive Producers for FremantleMedia Indonesia.
X Factor premiered in Indonesia on December 28, 2012.

Format and prize

Stages

There are five stages to the competition:

Stage 1: Producers' auditions
Stage 2: Judges' auditions
Stage 3: Bootcamp
Stage 4: Judges' houses
Stage 5: Live shows
Auditions

The show is open to solo artists and vocal groups aged 15 and above, with no upper age limit. The first set of auditions is held in front of the show's producers, which is not televised. Only candidates who successfully pass the producers' auditions are invited to perform to the judges. The judges' auditions are held in front of a live audience and the acts sing over a backing track. In that case, at least three out of four judges have to say "yes" for the auditionee to advance to the next round, otherwise they are sent home. In addition, there is an online audition too in which the auditionees can upload their performance on the X Factor Indonesia website and the get the vote from viewers on YouTube. An auditionee with the most voted video will get the chance to meet the judges and awarded cash prize.
A selection of the auditions in front of the judges – usually the best, the worst and the most bizarre – are broadcast over the first few weeks of the show.

Bootcamp, Six - Chair Challenges, and judges' home visits

The contestants selected at auditions are further refined through a series of performances at "bootcamp", and then at the "six chair challenge", to the "judges' home visit", until a small number eventually progress to the live finals. In the bootcamp, contestants will have to go through a series of challenges until the number of contestants were trimmed down and divided according to their categories. At the end of bootcamp, the producers will also reveal which category the judges will be mentoring. The judges then disband for the "six - chairs challenge" round, where they further reduce their acts to the "judges' home visit" round on which they must selected their three finalist for each season located at a residence with the help of a celebrity guest mentor. In fourth season, the "Judges' Home Visit" round was abolished because each judge can pick one act in 3 category at "The Chairs" round.

Live shows

The finals consist of a series of two gala live shows, with the first featuring the contestants' performances and the second revealing the results of the public voting. Celebrity guest performers will be featured regularly.

Performances

The performance show occasionally begins with a group performance from the remaining contestants. The show is primarily concerned with identifying a potential pop star or star group, and singing talent, appearance, personality, stage presence and dance routines are all important elements of the contestants' performances. In the initial live shows, each act performs once in the first show in front of a studio audience and the judges, usually singing over a pre-recorded backing track. Dancers are also commonly featured. Acts occasionally accompany themselves on guitar or piano.
Each live show has had a different theme; each contestant's song is chosen according to the theme. After each act has performed, the judges comment on their performance. Heated disagreements, usually involving judges defending their contestants against criticism, are a regular feature of the show. Once all the acts have appeared, the phone lines open and the viewing public vote on which act they want to keep. Once the number of contestants has been reduced to six, each act would perform twice in the performances show. This continues until only three acts remain. These acts go on to appear in the grand final which decides the overall winner by public vote.

Results

The two acts polling the fewest votes are revealed. Both these acts have to perform again in a "final showdown", and the judges vote on which of the two to send home. They were able to pick new songs to perform in the "final showdown". Ties are possible as there are four judges voting on which of the two to send home. In the event of a tie the result goes to deadlock, and the act who came last in the public vote is sent home. The actual number of votes cast for each act is not revealed, nor even the order. Once the number of contestants has been reduced to five, the act which polled the fewest votes is automatically eliminated from the competition.

After ''X Factor Indonesia''

The winner of the X Factor Indonesia is awarded a recording contract from Sony Music Indonesia for season 1 until 2 and Hits Records since season 3, which would include investments worth 1 billion rupiah, which is claimed as the largest guaranteed prize in Indonesian television history. Several cash rewards from the sponsors, including a new car and motorcycle, is also awarded for the grand finalists in the first season.

Series overview

To date, four seasons have been broadcast, as summarized below.
Contestant in "Boys"/"Male" category
Contestant in "Girls"/"Female" category
Contestant in "26+" category
Contestant in "Groups" category
;Notes

Mulan Jameela served as guest judge for one of the auditions to replace Anggun temporarily.
Judges and hosts

Many people were rumored to be in the running to join the judging panel, including Indra Lesmana, Titi DJ, Maia Estianty, Vina Panduwinata, Tompi, Anang Hermansyah, Sherina Munaf, Agnes Monica, Ruth Sahanaya, and Iwan Fals. Eventually, Dewa 19-frontman, musician, songwriter, and record producer Ahmad Dhani, singer, musician, and songwriter Bebi Romeo, pop diva Rossa, and international diva Anggun were confirmed to join this show as judges. Pop sensational singer Mulan Jameela filled in for Anggun at the auditions while Anggun was performing in her Europe Live Tour Concert. Numerous people were speculated to host the series, including VJ Boy William and Daniel Mananta, host of Indonesian Idol. On November 23, 2012, ex-VJ Robby Purba was announced as host of the show.

Judges' categories and their contestants

In each season, each judge is allocated a category to mentor and chooses a small number of acts to progress to the live shows. This table shows, for each season, which category each judge was allocated and which acts he or she put through to the live shows.
Key:
– Winning judge/category. Winners are in bold, eliminated contestants in small font.

Season	Ahmad Dhani	Rossa	Anggun	Bebi Romeo	N/A
One	Groups Nu Dimension Ilusia Girls Dalagita	Girls Fatin Shidqia Shena Malsiana Yohanna Febrianti	Boys Mikha Angelo Gede Bagus Dicky Adam	Over 26s Novita Dewi Isa Raja Alex Rudiart Agus Hafiluddin	-
Season	Ahmad Dhani	Rossa	Afgan	Bebi Romeo	-
Two	Over 26s Desy Natalia Angela July Sulle Wijaya	Groups Jebe & Petty Classy Jad n Sugy	Girls Clarisa Dewi Ajeng Astiani Ismi Riza Riska Wulandari	Boys Ramli Nurhappi Aldy Saputra Siera Latupeirissa	-
Season	Anang Hermansyah	Rossa	Ariel "Noah"	Bunga Citra Lestari	Judika
Three	Females Ruth Nelly Nadhira Ulya Intan Ayu	Girls Maysha Jhuan Putu Maydea Marcella Nursalim	Groups 2nd Chance GeryGany Whiz	Boys Alvin Jonathan Danar Widianto Edo Pratama	Males Roby Gultom Hendra Nurrahman Abdurrachman
Season	Marcello Tahitoe	Vidi Aldiano	Ariel "Noah"	Bunga Citra Lestari	Judika
Four	Male Tigor Sihombing Female Nafisah Alayyah Group Denise Ú Alfi	Male Peter Holly Female Marisa Aprilliyana Group TAV	Male Zibran Prasetio Female Kania Lituhayu Group D'Fratts	Male Ziad Fauzan Female Princessa Alicia Group Asmaralaya	Male Kris Tomahu Female Jetje Margaretha Group Circle of Fifth

Reception

Television ratings

All information from this table comes from Nielsen Audience Measurement Indonesia.
Controversy

Elimination of Alex Rudiart

In week six of season one, Ahmad Dhani and Rossa opted to send home Alex Rudiart in favor of Gede Bagus, causing the elimination of Alex Rudiart. This decision resulted in large amount of criticisms and outrages from the public, who claimed the decision as unfair. As a result, a lot of social media reactions begin to appear including several motion to boycott the show.

Media sponsorship

On September 29, 2012, RCTI, SYCOtv and FremantleMedia Asia announced that Cross Mobile would be the official sponsor of the X Factor Indonesia. The sponsorship includes an extensive multi-platform on and off-air marketing partnership. On December 26, Kopi ABC was announced as the second official sponsor of the show. Kopi ABC's sponsorship will also include an extensive multi-platform on and off-air marketing partnership. Indosat Mentari was confirmed as the third official sponsor on December 28. Indosat Mentari's sponsorship of the X Factor Indonesia will also include an extensive multi-platform on and off-air marketing partnership between Indosat and MNC Sky Vision. Oriflame also sponsored the show as the official make-up sponsor. Procter & Gamble using it as a platform to promote its Pantene, Olay and Downy brands. The motorcycle sponsor for the first season of X Factor Indonesia is owned by Honda. In 2015, Evercoss was replaced by Oppo as the official sponsor of the X Factor Indonesia. GIV, Indomie and Teh Pucuk Harum also joined as the official sponsor of the X Factor Indonesia. In 2021, Honda and Indomie rejoined as the official sponsor of the X Factor Indonesia, along with Lazada and Snack Video as main sponsor in season 3.