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The X Factor UK (Series 1)
Xforiginallogo
Series 1
Broadcast from 4 September 2004 – 11 December 2004
Judges Louis Walsh
Sharon Osbourne
Simon Cowell
Presenters Kate Thornton
Ben Shephard
Network ITV
ITV2
Number of finalists 9
Winner Steve Brookstein
Runner-up G4
Notable returnees 4Tune (2),
Chenai Zinyuku (2)
Ratings 7.4 million
Chronology
Next Series 2

The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent; the winner of which receives a £1 million recording contract with the Syco Music record label. The first series was broadcast from 4 September to 11 December 2004. The competition was split into several stages: auditions, bootcamp, judges' houses, and live shows, with Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne and Simon Cowell as judges. Kate Thornton presented the show on ITV, whilst Ben Shephard presented spin-off show The Xtra Factor on ITV2.

Auditions were held in Dublin, Newcastle, London, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow.

The series was won by Steve Brookstein, with Cowell as the winning mentor. Brookstein went on to have minor chart success, with runners-up G4 achieving two platinum albums before splitting up in 2007.

The judging panel consisted of Irish music manager Louis Walsh, music manager and television personality Sharon Osbourne and label head Simon Cowell, who conceived the idea to create a new talent show with a broader range of auditionees to its predecessor Pop Idol.

Kate Thornton presented the show on ITV, whilst Ben Shephard presented spin-off show The Xtra Factor on ITV2.

Production[]

Judges[]

Louiswalsh2004 225px-Sharon Osbourne Simoncowell2004
Louis Walsh Sharon Osbourne Simon Cowell

Twists/Changes[]

Auditions: The audition age for this series was 16 and older and unlike its predecessor, groups could also audition. Auditions were held in Dublin, Newcastle, London, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow.

Live Shows: In Week 6, each act performed twice in the first show (with the judges offering their opinions after the second songs), and reprised one of their songs in the results show. The act with the fewest public votes was eliminated at the end of the second show, with the judges no longer having a say in who left.

Finalists[]

Act Category Finish Elimination
The X Factor 2005 Live Tour
Robertahowettmini Roberta Howett
23, Dublin, Ireland
16-24s 9th
week one
Majority vote
Veritykeayesmini Verity Keays
51, Grimsby, Lincolnshire
Over 25s 8th
week two
Majority vote
2togomini 2 to Go
23-24, Notts
Groups 7th
week three
Majority vote
Voiceswithsoulmini Voices with Soul
25-42, Luton
Groups 6th
week four
Majority vote
Cassiecomptonmini Cassie Compton
17, North London
16-24s 5th
week five
Majority vote
Rowettasatchell Rowetta Satchell
38, Manchester
Over 25s 4th
quarter-final
Fewest public votes
Tabbycallaghanmini Tabby Callaghan
23, Sligo, Ireland
16-24s 3rd
semi-final
Fewest public votes
G4mini G4
22-24, London
Groups Runner-up
final
Fewest public votes
Stevebrooksteinmini Steve Brookstein
35, London
Over 25s Winner
final
Most public votes

Selection process[]

Auditions[]

See: List of The X Factor UK auditionees (series 1)

Prior to the audition phase, advertisements appeared on ITV, in newspapers, and trade magazines, promising that the new show would encourage groups, and while the emphasis was on singing, would welcome those who played instruments and wrote their own songs. Thus the show would differentiate itself from its predecessor, Pop Idol.

Auditions were held in Dublin, Newcastle, London, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow.

Bootcamp[]

See: Bootcamp (UK series 1)

After the initial auditions, each judge was randomly allocated a category:

  • Simon Cowell: Over 25s
  • Sharon Osbourne: 16-24s
  • Louis Walsh: Groups

Each judge chose twelve acts from their category to go through to round two of bootcamp. After bootcamp, each judge selected five acts to progress to "judges' homes".

Judges' Houses[]

See: Judges' Houses (UK series 1)

Summary of judges' homes
Judge Category Location Guest mentor(s) Contestants eliminated
Cowell Over 25s London Annie Skates, Sinitta Lloyd Wade, Odis Palmer
Osbourne 16-24s Buckinghamshire Mark Hudson, Terry Longden, Jack Osbourne Andy Steed, Megan Ramsay
Walsh Groups Dublin Linda Martin, Faye Sawyer, David Laudat 4Tune, Advance

Live Shows[]

Results Summary[]

Weekly results per act
Week 1 2 3 4 5 Quarter-Final Semi-Final Final
Eliminated Robertahowettmini Veritykeayesmini 2togomini Voiceswithsoulmini Cassiecomptonmini Rowettasatchell Tabbycallaghanmini G4mini Stevebrooksteinmini
Steve Brookstein Safe Safe Safe Safe Safe Safe Safe Winner
(final)
G4 Safe Safe Safe Bottom Two Safe Safe Safe Runner-Up
(final)
Tabby Callaghan Safe Safe Safe Safe Bottom Two Safe 3rd Eliminated
(semi-final)
Rowetta Satchell Safe Safe Safe Safe Safe 4th Eliminated
(quarter-final)
Cassie Compton Safe Safe Safe Safe Bottom Two Eliminated
(week 5)
Voices with Soul Bottom Two Safe Bottom Two Bottom Two Eliminated
(week 4)
2 to Go Safe Bottom Two Bottom Two Eliminated
(week 3)
Verity Keays Safe Bottom Two Eliminated
(week 2)
Roberta Howett Bottom Two Eliminated
(week 1)
Final Showdown Howett,
Voices with Soul
2 to Go,
Keays
2 to Go,
Voices with Soul
G4,
Voices with Soul
Callaghan,
Compton
No final showdown or judges' votes;
results were based on public votes alone
Walsh's vote
to eliminate
Howett Keays 2 to Go Voices with Soul Compton
Osbourne's vote
to eliminate
Voices with Soul Keays 2 to Go Voices with Soul None (abstained)
Cowell's vote
to eliminate
Howett 2 to Go N/A* G4 Compton
Eliminated Roberta Howett
(2 of 3)
Majority Vote
Verity Keays
(2 of 3)
Majority Votes
2 to Go
(2 of 2)
Majority Vote
Voices with Soul
(2 of 3)
Majority Vote
Cassie Compton
(2 of 3)
Majority Vote
Rowetta Satchell
Public Vote
To Save
Tabby Callaghan
Public Vote
To Save
G4
Public Vote
To Win
  • In Week 3, Cowell did not need to vote as there was already a majority.

Live show details[]

Week 1 (23 October)[]

Contestants' performances on the first live show
Act Category Order Song Result
Voices with Soul Walsh (Groups) 1 "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" Bottom two
Verity Keays Cowell (Over 25s) 2 "I Will Always Love You" Safe
Roberta Howett Osbourne (16-24s) 3 "Superstar" Eliminated
2 to Go Walsh (Groups) 4 "Don't Know Much" Safe
Steve Brookstein Cowell (Over 25s) 5 "When a Man Loves a Woman" Safe
Cassie Compton Osbourne (16-24s) 6 "Alfie" Safe
G4 Walsh (Groups) 7 "Everybody Hurts" Safe
Rowetta Satchell Cowell (Over 25s) 8 "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" Safe
Tabby Callaghan Osbourne (16-24s) 9 "You Really Got Me" Safe

Judges' votes to eliminate

  • Walsh: Roberta Howett – backed his own act, Voices with Soul.
  • Osbourne: Voices with Soul – backed her own act, Roberta Howett.
  • Cowell: Roberta Howett – based on the final showdown performance, but felt that neither act deserved to be in the bottom two.

Week 2 (30 October)[]

Contestants' performances on the second live show
Act Order Song Result
Rowetta Satchell 1 "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" Safe
2 to Go 2 "Always" Bottom two
Cassie Compton 3 "Without You" Safe
Verity Keays 4 "Wind Beneath My Wings" Eliminated
G4 5 "Don't Look Back in Anger" Safe
Tabby Callaghan 6 "My Oh My" Safe
Steve Brookstein 7 "If You Don't Know Me by Now" Safe
Voices with Soul 8 "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" Safe

Judges' votes to eliminate:

  • Walsh: Verity Keays – backed his own act, 2 to Go.
  • Cowell: 2 to Go – backed his own act, Verity Keays.
  • Osbourne: Verity Keays – gave no reason.

Week 3 (6 November)[]

Contestants' performances on the third live show
Act Order Song Result
Tabby Callaghan 1 "Addicted to Love" Safe
Voices with Soul 2 "Bridge Over Troubled Water" Bottom two
Steve Brookstein 3 "Smile" Safe
2 to Go 4 "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" Eliminated
Cassie Compton 5 "I Say a Little Prayer" Safe
Rowetta Satchell 6 "Over the Rainbow" Safe
G4 7 "...Baby One More Time" Safe

Judges' votes to eliminate:

  • Osbourne: 2 to Go – gave no reason.
  • Walsh: 2 to Go – said he did not want to send either of his acts home. He asked to vote last but Thornton pressed him for his decision.
  • Cowell was not required to vote as there was already a majority.

Week 4 (13 November)[]

Contestants' performances on the fourth live show
Act Order Song Result
G4 1 "Circle of Life" Bottom two
Rowetta Satchell 2 "MacArthur Park" Safe
Tabby Callaghan 3 "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" Safe
Voices With Soul 4 "Lady Marmalade" Eliminated
Cassie Compton 5 "Hero" Safe
Steve Brookstein 6 "Help Me Make It Through the Night" Safe

Judges' votes to eliminate:

  • Osbourne: Voices with Soul – based on the final showdown performance, and believed that G4 had a future in a recording career.
  • Cowell: G4 – gave no reason.
  • Walsh: Voices with Soul – said he did not want to send either of his acts home, saying the result was worse than last week; he tried to back out but Thornton forced him for his decision.

Week 5 (20 November)[]

Contestants' performances on the fifth live show
Act Order Song Result
Steve Brookstein 1 "Let's Stay Together" Safe
Cassie Compton 2 "All by Myself" Eliminated
G4 3 "My Way" Safe
Tabby Callaghan 4 "Sweet Child o' Mine" Bottom two
Rowetta Satchell 5 "Somewhere" Safe

Judges' votes to eliminate:

  • Walsh: Cassie Compton – believed Callaghan could win the competition.
  • Osbourne abstained from voting as both acts were in her category. Thornton tried to remind her of her duty to vote between her acts as Walsh did in the previous two results shows, but Osbourne still refused to send home either of her acts, citing her loyalty to both of them. Following this, Thornton told Cowell that if he chose to send home Callaghan, the result would to deadlock where the public vote to decide who would be eliminated.
  • Cowell: Cassie Compton – wanted to win the competition and believed Callaghan was his biggest threat but after deliberating on whether to send home either Callaghan or Compton, who he felt was the weakest, opted to send Compton home.

Week 6: Quarter-Final (27 November)[]

Contestants' performances on the sixth live show
Act Order First song Order Second song Result
Rowetta Satchell 1 "River Deep - Mountain High" 5 "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" Eliminated
G4 2 "You'll Never Walk Alone" 6 "Somebody to Love" Safe
Steve Brookstein 3 "I Get the Sweetest Feeling" 7 "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" Safe
Tabby Callaghan 4 "More Than Words" 8 "Livin' on a Prayer" Safe

The quarter-final did not feature a final showdown and instead the act with the fewest public votes, Rowetta Satchell, was automatically eliminated

Week 7: Semi-Final (4 December)[]

Contestants' performances on the seventh live show
Act Order First song Order Second song Result
Tabby Callaghan 1 "Pride (In the Name of Love)" 4 "Sailing" Eliminated
Steve Brookstein 2 "Have I Told You Lately" 5 "Greatest Love of All" Safe
G4 3 "O Holy Night" 6 "Bohemian Rhapsody" Safe

The semi-final did not feature a final showdown and instead the act with the fewest public votes, Tabby Callaghan, was automatically eliminated.

Week 8: Final (11 December)[]

Contestants' performances on the final live show
Act Order First song Order Second song (song of the series) Order Third song (winner's single) Result
Steve Brookstein 1 "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" 3 "Smile" 5 "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" Winner
G4 2 "Nessun Dorma" 4 "Bohemian Rhapsody" 6 "Creep" Runner-up

Ratings[]

This series achieved an average of 7.4 million viewers per episode. The lowest of and The X Factor UK series so far

Episode Air date Official ITV1 rating (millions) Weekly rank (millions)
Auditions 1 4 September 5.25 21
Auditions 2 11 September 6.53 17
Auditions 3 18 September 7.08 14
Auditions 4 25 September 7.24 16
Auditions 5 2 October 6.71 18
Bootcamp 1 9 October 6.69 21
Bootcamp 2 7.89 17
Judges' houses 16 October 7.32 17
Live show 1 23 October 7.18 17
Live results 1 7.83 15
Live show 2 30 October 6.53 20
Live results 2 7.26 17
Live show 3 6 November 6.89 19
Live results 3 7.02 18
Live show 4 13 November 7.42 15
Live results 4 6.88 18
Live show 5 20 November 7.91 16
Live results 5 7.98 14
Live show 6 27 November 8.06 22
Live results 6 8.01 23
Live semi-final 4 December 7.79 20
Live results 7 7.52 23
Final 11 December 8.62 15
Final results 9.96 8

Controversies[]

It was reported in tabloid newspapers that the show's audition process was unfair after Walsh was accused of cheating. He was thought to have advised the group Co-Ed on things such as song choices, which caused controversy after it was revealed that he had actually previously managed Co-Ed after they appeared on the Irish version of Popstars in 2001. Around the same time, footage of Cowell and Osbourne coaching contestants to argue back to the judges was being auctioned over the Internet.

Prior to the first live show, Osbourne accused Cowell of "rigging" the show by editing footage to make the contestants in his category more appealing to viewers. Osbourne attracted criticism again following the final in December 2004 when she was forced to make an apology after attracting what Cowell referred to as "record complaints" over an outburst by Osbourne in which she criticised eventual winner Steve Brookstein. This left her place on the show uncertain, although she returned for the second series in 2005.

Despite finishing as runners-up, G4 have since referred to The X Factor as "just panto".

Team Rankings:[]

1.Over 25s (mentored by Simon Cowell)

Stevebrooksteinmini Rowettasatchell Veritykeayesmini

2.Groups (mentored by Louis Walsh)

G4mini Voiceswithsoulmini 2togomini

3.16-24s (mentored by Sharon Osbourne)

Tabbycallaghanmini Cassiecomptonmini Robertahowettmini

Trivia[]

  • Both the winning act and runner-up performed different potential winner's singles. This would not happen again until the 2010 UK series.
  • This was the only series to include nine acts in the live shows (excluding X Factor: Battle Of The Stars)
  • All three judges had their last surviving act in the final three.
  • This is the only series where every single act on the live shows performed on The X Factor Live Tour.
  • This is the first series to feature a judging panel where all three judges were born in the 1950s.


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