The X Factor is an Australian television reality music competition, based on the original British series, to find new singing talent. The first season of the show premiered on Network Ten on 6 February 2005. Ten dropped The X Factor after the first season due to its poor ratings. In 2010, the Seven Network won the rights to the show, and a second season went into production. The X Factor was renewed after the highly successful Australian Idol was no longer broadcast on Network Ten. The X Factor was produced by FremantleMedia Australia, and was broadcast on the Seven Network in Australia and on TV3 in New Zealand. The program was cancelled after its eighth season in 2016.
The original judging panel line-up in 2005 consisted of Mark Holden, Kate Ceberano, and John Reid. When the show was revived in 2010, the judging panel was replaced by Natalie Imbruglia, Ronan Keating, Kyle Sandilands and Guy Sebastian. Imbruglia and Sandilands did not return for season three and were replaced by Natalie Bassingthwaighte and Mel B. Redfoo and Dannii Minogue joined the panel in season five as replacements for Sebastian and Mel B. Sebastian returned to the panel in season seven along with new judges James Blunt and Chris Isaak, as replacements for Keating, Bassingthwaighte and Redfoo. The eighth season featured Guy Sebastian, Iggy Azalea, Adam Lambert and Mel B as judges, with Mel B serving as the "Underdog Judge".
During the televised audition phases of The X Factor, originally the contestants sang in an "audition room" in front of only the judges, however, from season two onwards all auditionees sing on stage in an arena, in front of the judges and a live audience. The successful acts then progress to the next stage of the competition, "bootcamp" and later "home visits", where the judges narrow their category down to three acts who continued to the live shows, where the public vote for their favourite act, following weekly performances by the contestants.
There have been eight winners: Random, Altiyan Childs, Reece Mastin, Samantha Jade, Dami Im, Marlisa Punzalan, Cyrus Villanueva and Isaiah Firebrace. Winners received a recording contract with record label Sony Music Australia. In season three, the winner also received a management contract, and in season four, a Nissan Dualis car. Each winning contestant's single has charted within the top-ten of the ARIA Singles Chart, only Mastin's, Jade's and Im's singles have reached number one. There have also been a number of hit singles released by other contestants who have appeared on The X Factor. The show has received numerous awards and nominations, including five Logie Award nominations, of which it has won one for Most Outstanding Light Entertainment Program.
History The X Factor was created by Simon Cowell in the United Kingdom and is based on the original British series. Cowell then began to grow and expand The X Factor competition franchise and in 2005, the Australian version of the show was launched on Network Ten, the same channel as the highly successful Australian Idol. However, due to poor ratings Network Ten dropped The X Factor after one season.
In 2010, once the seventh and final season of Australian Idol was completed, it was announced that Seven Network went into a "bidding war" with Nine Network to obtain the rights of The X Factor, which they later won and a second season went into production. Networks Seven and Nine both began the bidding war after expressing interest by attending a conference organised by Cowell. Andrew Backwell, Nine Network's director of production and development, and Tim Worner of Network Seven's head of programming, both attended the conference. Cowell wanted the Australian version to match his "own specifications", and said that it would cost at least $20 million for 21 hours of television. The X Factor was originally set to return in February 2011, but began in August 2010.
In February 2016, reports claimed that Seven was mulling over whether or not to delay the series' planned eighth season until 2017. It was later confirmed that The X Factor will return in 2016. The season premiered on 3 October 2016. Towards the end of the eighth season, there was speculation that The X Factor would not return in 2017 due to poor ratings. A spokesman from Seven advised that the decision will be made in early 2017. Seven confirmed the program had been axed in January 2017.
Format The X Factor was primarily concerned with identifying singing talent, through appearance, personality, and stage presence. Dance routines were also important elements of many performances. Throughout the live shows, the judges acted as mentors to their category, helping to decide song choices, styling and staging, while judging contestants from other categories. For each season, each judge was assigned a category and they mentored their three acts individually, with all acts having a shared amount of time with their mentor. Each of the 12 acts also had rehearsal time in the studio with their mentor. In some cases, if a solo artist was not strong enough, the judges would put together a group of solo artists which had potential to be great as a band. In season six only, a wildcard was introduced to add one more act to the live shows, thus making it 13 contestants.
Categories In season 1, the show was split into three categories: 16-24s, Over 25s and Groups. In seasons 2-7, the 16-24s category was split into separate male and female sections, making four categories in all: Boys, Girls, Over 25s, and Groups. In season 3 onwards, the minimum age for the Boys and Girls categories was lowered to 14. In season 5 only, the Over 25s was changed to Over 24s. In season 6, It was changed back to Over 25s for series 6, In Season 8, the Over 25s was changed to Over 22s, Boys and Girls has been defunct and making the 14-21s to come back, Bands are now able to audition, any can play instruments - they will be part of the Groups category.
Stages There were five stages to the competition:
Stage 1: Open auditions: these auditions decided who would sing in front of the judges (season 2–8) Stage 2: Judges' auditions Stage 3: Masterclass (season 1), bootcamp (season 2–6) or seat challenge (season 7–8) Stage 4: Judges' houses (season 1) or super home visits (season 2–7) Stage 5: Live shows (finals)
For the first season, the judges' auditions, masterclass, the judges' houses and the live finals were the four stages to the competition. For the revived second season, the stages changed to open auditions, judges' auditions, bootcamp, super home visits and the live shows. This remained unchanged until season 8, when the stages changed to open auditions, judges' auditions, three seat challenge and the live shows.
Auditions In the first round, the first set of auditions were held in front of the show's producers, months before The X Factor was aired. The open auditions were not televised and anyone could attend. The successful auditionees chosen by the producers were invited back to the last set of the audition phase, which took place in front of the show's judging panel and a live audience. If there were three judges present during the auditions, the act needed at least two "yes" votes (three if there were four judges present) to gain the majority vote. The judges' auditions were held on selected dates and locations in a number of major cities of Australia, and were broadcast over the first few weeks of The X Factor. The show was open to solo artists and vocal groups aged 14 and above, with no upper age limit. Only a selection of auditions in front of the judges were broadcast, usually the best, the worst and the most bizarre. During the first season of The X Factor, each act entered an audition room and delivered a stand-up unaccompanied performance of their chosen song to the judges, without any instrumental music playing.
Bootcamp and super home visits 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 second series with the minimum age allowed being 16 (except for the second to eighth series where it was lowered to 14). The second category consists of men and women solo acts aged 25 and older (with the exception of one series where the minimum age was raised to 24 in season 5 and 22 in season 8).
During the bootcamp stage (formerly lock down in season 1, and super bootcamp in seasons 4–6), each judge was assigned one of the four categories to mentor. It was usually held on three days. In seasons 1, 2 and 3, each judge was given 24 acts and had to decide on their 12 acts after day two, and their six acts after day three. Each judge was assisted by a celebrity guest judge who would help them choose their acts. In season one, the judges narrowed down their acts to five instead of six. In seasons 4, 5 and 6, all four judges worked together to collectively choose 24 acts (six from each category) for the next round, home visits, where they find out which category they will mentor. From season 7, bootcamp were now based around the five seat challenge, where each judge chose their five acts to go through to the super home visits.
From seasons 1 to 7, the super home visits stage (formerly judges' houses in seasons 1–2, and home visits in seasons 3–6), saw the judges and their remaining six acts travel to four different places of the world. From season seven, all four judges and their remaining five acts traveled to the same location. During the super home visits, each act performed one song in front of their mentor and celebrity guest judges. Afterwards, each mentor and their guest judges narrowed down the acts to three for the live shows.
Live shows and winner's prize The finals consisted of two live shows, the first featuring the contestants' performances and the second revealing the results of the public voting, culminating in one/two acts being eliminated each week. The live shows were filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney. In season 1, the shows were filmed at Hisense Arena (formerly Vodafone Arena) in Melbourne. In season two, the live shows were broadcast on Sunday and Monday nights, but moved to Monday and Tuesday nights for seasons three and four. In season five, the live shows returned to Sunday and Monday nights. In season seven, the live shows were once again broadcast on Monday and Tuesday nights.
In the initial performance shows, each act performed one song (two songs each during the Semi-Final and three songs each during the Grand Final) in front of the judges and a studio audience. The acts usually sung over a pre-recorded backing track, and backup dancers were commonly featured as well as stage props. Acts occasionally accompanied themselves on guitar or piano. From the second season, each performance show had a different theme; each act's song was chosen according to the theme. The acts' mentors picked the song for them and critiqued their performance in order to get it perfect for the live shows. A celebrity guest connected to the theme was often invited onto The X Factor, and clips were shown of the guest conversing with the contestants at rehearsal. After each act had performed, the judges commented on their performance. Once all the acts had performed, the phone lines opened and the viewing public voted on which act they wanted to keep in the competition.