

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 a contestant who won the second series of Pop Idol had been unworthy to earn victory compared to others who had participated. The concept for The X Factor stemmed from his involvement as a judge on Pop Idol, another music talent competition that ITV aired from 2001–2003. The programme's format was devised by Sony Music executive Simon Cowell in 2004. Simon Cowell, creator of The X Factor and the second longest-serving judge in the programme's history. On 28 July 2021, ITV announced that the programme had been axed. In addition, many of its acts, including JLS, Diana Vickers, One Direction and Ella Henderson, later went on to release singles that entered number-one in the UK charts.įrom 2011, viewing figures began to decline, and Cowell later 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. 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. Īt 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 later replaced in 2016 with an online spin-off show, Xtra Bites, on ITV Hub. The winner of the live final received a recording contract with record label Syco Music and a cash payment, though the majority was allocated to marketing and recording costs. Those that made it through 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. 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, Cheryl Cole, Gary Barlow, Rita Ora, and Robbie Williams. All 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.Įach year of the competition saw contestants of all ages and backgrounds auditioning for a place, in hopes of proving that they had singing talent. The programme ran for around 445 episodes across fifteen series, each one primarily broadcast between late summer to early winter, until its final episode in December 2018.

Premiering on 4 September 2004, it was produced by Fremantle's Thames and Cowell's production company Syco Entertainment for ITV, as well as simulcast on Virgin Media One in Ireland. The group performed their single Story of My Life on Novemand Midnight Memories on December 19, 2013.The X Factor is a British reality television music competition, created by Simon Cowell. " Something About the Way You Look Tonight" Through together as a group/through to judges' houses Performances on The X Factor Performances on The X Factor During the Video Dairies, the members would entertain their viewers by answering questions from the fans and doing a variety of activities. The Video Diaries are a series of videos released by One Direction during their time on the X-Factor.

Ultimately, they were placed in third place. At the judges' house, One Direction performed " Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia and succeeded onto the live shows. Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson auditioned on The X Factor as solo artists ultimately being put together to form the boyband One Direction. OMG it's JLS vs One Direction - The X Factor 2011 Live Final - itv.com xfactor 2010 (One Direction)
