The X Factor

For the original UK version, see The X Factor (UK).

Location of different franchises of The X Factor

  Own version

  Joint version

The X Factor is a television talent show franchise originating in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for Pop Idol. It is a singing competition, now held in various countries, which pits contestants against each other. These contestants are aspiring pop singers drawn from public auditions. The programs are produced by executive producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco TV. The "X Factor" of the title refers to the undefinable "something" that makes for star quality. The prize is usually a recording contract, in addition to the publicity that appearance in the later stages of the show itself generates, not only for the winner but also for other highly ranked contestants.

The format creator is Simon Cowell who also judges and mentors on the UK series. The UK version is responsible for the launch of the internationally successful singer Leona Lewis. As of May 2011, there have been 48 winners of The X Factor around the world. Television stations in many countries, but especially the Scandinavian ones, have expressed an interest in showing the UK version, but have not been able to acquire the rights. This is due to legal issues as the British version of the show is only available in the UK and Ireland. The X Factor has recently completed its seventh series.

Unlike Pop Idol, where contestants are solely judged by the judges, on The X Factor each judge mentors the finalists in a particular category, aiding them with song selection and styling, while also participating together in judging the contestants of the other categories.

The X Factor series

Region/country	Local title	Television network	Series and winners	Judges	Presenters
Arab World	The X Factor, XSeer Al Najah سير النجاح X	Rotana TV	Season 1, 2006: Rajaa Kasabni Season 2, 2007: Muhammad El Majzoub	Khaled El Sheikh (2006–2007) Michel Elefteriades (2006–2007) Nelly (2006) Anoushka (2007)	Joelle Rahme
Armenia	X-Factor ԻՔՍ-ՖԱԿՏՈՐ	Shant TV Website	Season 1, 2010-2011: Vrezh Kirakosyan	Egor Glumov Naira Gyurjinyan Garik Baboyan Gisane Palyan	Aram MP3
Australia	The X Factor	Network Ten (2005) Seven Network (2010–present)	Season 1, 2005: Random Season 2, 2010: Altiyan Childs Season 3, 2011: upcoming season	Current Ronan Keating Melanie Brown Natalie Bassingthwaighte Guy Sebastian Former Natalie Imbruglia Kyle Sandilands Mark Holden Kate Ceberano John Reid	Current Luke Jacobz Natalie Garonzi (The Xtra Factor) Former Daniel MacPherson Chloe Maxwell (The Xtra Factor)
Belgium	X Factor	VTM Website	Season 1 2005: Udo Mechels Season 2 2008: Dirk De Smet	Kris Wauters Jean Blaute (Season 1) Liliane Saint-Pierre (Season 1) Do (Season 2) Maurice Engelen (Season 2)	Koen Wauters (Season 1) Hadise (Season 2)
Bulgaria	X Factor	NOVA	Season 1, 2011: upcoming season	TBD	TBD
Chile	Factor X	TVN TVN HD Website	Season 1, 2011: Sergio Járlaz Season 2, 2012: upcoming season	Zeta Bosio Karen Doggenweiler Tito Beltrán Nydia Caro (guest judge)	Julián Elfenbein
Colombia	El Factor X	RCN TV Website	Season 1, 2005: Julio César Meza Season 2, 2006: Francisco Villarreal Season 3, 2009: Siam	Marbelle (Season 1-present) Juan Carlos Coronel (Season 1-present) José Gaviria (Season 1-present) Wilfrido Vargas (El Factor Xs 2)	Andrea Serna
	El Factor X: Batalla de Estrella		Season 1, 2006: Luz Amparo Alvarez
	El Factor Xs		Season 1, 2006: Andres Camilo Hurtado Season 2, 2007: Camilo Echeverry Correa
Czech Republic	X Factor	TV Nova Website	Season 1, 2008: Jiří Zonyga	Gábina Osvaldová Ondřej Soukup Petr Janda	Leoš Mareš
Czech Republic Slovakia	X Faktor	TV Prima TV JOJ	Season 1, 2012: upcoming season	TBD	TBD
Denmark	X Factor	DR Website	Season 1, 2008: Martin Hoberg Hedegaard Season 2, 2009: Linda Andrews Season 3, 2010: Thomas Ring Petersen Season 4, 2011: Sarah Skaalum Jørgensen	Remee (Seasons 1-3) Lina Rafn (Seasons 1-2) Thomas Blachman (Seasons 1-2 & 4) Carsten "Soulshock" Schack (Season 3) Pernille Rosendahl (Seasons 3-4) Cutfather (Season 4)	Lise Rønne (Seasons 1-2 & 4) Signe Muusmann (Season 3)
Finland	X Factor	MTV3 Website	Season 1, 2010: Elias Hämäläinen	Linda Brava Renne Korppila Gugi Kokljuschkin	X Factor Heikki Paasonen Xtra Factor Jukka Rossi
France Wallonia	X Factor	France W9 (2009) M6 (2011) Website series 1 Website series 2 Belgium RTL TVI (2009–2011) Website series 1 Website series 2	Season 1, 2009: Sébastien Agius Season 2, 2011: current season	Current Henry Padovani Olivier Schultheis Véronic DiCaire Christophe Willem Series 1 Marc Cerrone Julie Zenatti Alain Lanty	Current X Factor Sandrine Corman F@n Factor Jérôme Anthony Former X Factor Alexandre Devoise
Germany	X Factor	VOX Kick-off on RTL Website	Season 1, 2010: Edita Abdieski Season 2, 2011: upcoming season	Sarah Connor (Season 1-2) Till Brönner (Season 1-2) George Glueck (Season 1) Mirko Bogojević(Season 2)	Jochen Schropp
Greece Cyprus	The X Factor	ANT1 ANT1 Cyprus Website	Season 1, 2008-2009: Loukas Giorkas Season 2, 2009-2010: Stavros Michalakakos Season 3, 2010-2011: Haris Antoniou Season 4, 2011-2012: upcoming season	Current Giorgos Theofanous Katerina Gagaki Nikos Mouratidis Former George Levendis	Current Sakis Rouvas (live shows) Giorgos Lianos (audition shows) Maria Sinatsaki (audition shows) Former Despina Kampouri (audition shows)
Hungary	X-Faktor	RTL Klub Website	Season 1, 2010: Csaba Vastag Season 2, 2011: upcoming season	Feró Nagy Péter Geszti Ildikó Keresztes Ifj. Miklós Malek	X Faktor Nóra Ördög Sebestyén Balázs After X Attila Müller
Iceland	X Factor	Stöð 2 Website	Series 1, 2006: Jógvan Hansen	Einar Bárðarson Elínborg Halldórsdóttir Páll Óskar Hjálmtýsson	Halla Vilhjálmsdóttir
India	X Factor	Sony Entertainment TV Website	Season 1, 2011: current season	Sonu Nigam Shreya Ghoshal Sanjay Leela Bhansali	Aditya Narayan
Indonesia	The X Factor	RCTI Website	Season 1, 2012: upcoming season	Andi Rianto Ruth Sahanaya Tompi	Choky Sitohang
Italy	X Factor	Rai Due Website	Season 1, 2008: Aram Quartet Season 2, 2008-2009: Matteo Becucci Season 3, 2009: Marco Mengoni Season 4, 2010: Nathalie Giannitrapani Season 5, 2011: upcoming season	Current Mara Maionchi Elio Anna Tatangelo Enrico Ruggeri Former Morgan (Season 1-3) Simona Ventura (Season 1-2) Claudia Mori (Season 3)	X Factor Francesco Facchinetti Xtra Factor Francesco Facchinetti
Kazakhstan	X Factor	Perviy Kanal Evraziya Website	Season 1, 2011: Dariya Gabdull Season 2, 2012: upcoming season	Nagima Eskalieva Alexander Shevchenko Sultana Karazhigitova	Adil Liyan
Netherlands	X Factor	RTL 4 Website	Season 1, 2007: Sharon Kips Season 2, 2009: Lisa Hordijk Season 3, 2010: Jaap van Reesema Season 4, 2011: current season	Current Eric van Tijn Stacey Rookhuizen Angela Groothuizen Gordon Heuckeroth Former Henkjan Smits Marianne van Wijnkoop Henk Temming	Wendy van Dijk Martijn Krabbe
New Zealand	The X Factor	TV3	Season 1, 2011: upcoming season	TBD	TBD
Nigeria	X Factor	AIT Website	Season 1, 2011: upcoming season	TBD	Egwulegwu Dun'Scotus
Norway	X Factor	TV 2 Website	Season 1, 2009: Chand Torsvik Season 2, 2010: Hans Bollandsås Season 3, 2011: upcoming season	Current Jan Fredrik Karlsen (Season 1-2) Elisabeth Andreassen (Season 2) Marion Ravn (Season 2) Klaus Sonstad (Season 2) Former Mira Craig (Season 1) Peter Peters (Season 1)	Current X Factor Ravi Guri Solberg Xtra Factor Peter Moi Brubresko, Katarina Flatland Former X Factor Charlotte Thorstvedt (Season 1)
Poland	X Factor	TVN Website	Season 1, 2011: in progress	Czesław Mozil Maja Sablewska Kuba Wojewódzki	Jarosław Kuźniar
Romania	X Factor	Antena 1 Website	Season 1, autumn 2011	TBA	Răzvan Simion și Dani Oțil
Russia	Sekret Uspekha Секрет Успеха	RTR Website	Season 1, 2005: Vladimir Sapovskiy Season 2, 2007: Nikolai Timohin	Season 1 Valeriy Meladze Katerina Von Gechmen-Valdek Aleksandr Revzin Valeriya Season 2 Valery Garkalin Tigran Keosayan	Season 1 Aleksey Chumakov Elena Vorobey Season 2 Tutti Larsen
	Faktor A Фактор А	Russia 1 Website	Season 1, 2011: current season	Lolita Milyavskaya Roman Emelyanov Boris Krasnov Alla Pugacheva (chairperson)	Philipp Kirkorov Vladimir Zelenski
Serbia	X Faktor	Prva	Season 1, 2011: upcoming season	TBD	TBD
Spain	Factor X	Cuatro Website	Season 1, 2007: María Villalón Season 2, 2008: Vocal Tempo	Miqui Puig Eva Perales Jorge Flo	Núria Roca
Ukraine	X Factor	STB Website| Website	Season 1, 2010-2011: Alexey Kuznecov Season 2, 2011: Upcoming season	Igor Kondratyuk Sergei Sosedov Yolka Seryoga Galina Pylyutykova (auditions)	Oksana Marchenko
United Kingdom Ireland	The X Factor	ITV1 ITV1 HD ITV2 STV (Scotland) STV HD UTV (Northern Ireland) Channel Television (Channel Islands) TV3 (Ireland) Website	Series 1, 2004: Steve Brookstein Series 2, 2005: Shayne Ward Series 3, 2006: Leona Lewis Series 4, 2007: Leon Jackson Series 5, 2008: Alexandra Burke Series 6, 2009: Joe McElderry Series 7, 2010: Matt Cardle Series 8, 2011: Upcoming series	Current Louis Walsh Kelly Rowland Gary Barlow Tulisa Contostavlos Former Simon Cowell Cheryl Cole Dannii Minogue Sharon Osbourne Brian Friedman	Current Dermot O'Leary Former Kate Thornton Ben Shephard (The Xtra Factor) Fearne Cotton (The Xtra Factor) Holly Willoughby (The Xtra Factor) Konnie Huq (The Xtra Factor) Caroline Flack (The Xtra Factor) Olly Murs (The Xtra Factor)
	The X Factor: Battle of the Stars		Series 1, 2006: Lucy Benjamin
United States	The X Factor	Fox (USA) CTV (Canada) ITV2 (UK) 7Two (Australia) TV3 (New Zealand) Website	Season 1, 2011: upcoming season	Simon Cowell L.A. Reid Paula Abdul Nicole Scherzinger	Steve Jones

Disputes and controversies

Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller claimed the format of The X Factor was copied from his own show and through his company 19 TV filed a lawsuit against The X Factor producers FremantleMedia, Simon Cowell, and Cowell's company Syco. A high court hearing began in London in November 2005, the outcome awaited with interest by media lawyers for its potential effect on the legal situation regarding the copyrighting of formats. However the hearing was quickly adjourned and a settlement was reached out of court at the end of the month.

The Danish version of The X Factor has been criticised by Danish music contract expert and consultant for The Danish Musicians' Association (Dansk Musiker Forbund) Mikael Højris. According to Højris, the contracts for participation in the show are unfair for participants and almost amount to serfdom to DR1 (the channel airing the show) stating that clauses in the contracts forbid the participants - whether they pass the first round or not - from performing or participating in any other musical event for three months. He also criticises that participants are obliged to travel at their own expense.

In the UK, performers' union Equity has referred to the fact that contestants are not paid as "cheap exploitation".

See also

• List of television show franchises