The X Factor UK (Series 11)

The X Factor UK (Series 11)
Series	11
Broadcast from	30 August 2014 – 14 December 2014
Judges	Louis Walsh Mel B Cheryl Fernandez-Versini Simon Cowell Tulisa (guest)
Presenters	Dermot O'Leary Sarah-Jane Crawford
Network	ITV ITV2
Number of finalists	16
Winner	Ben Haenow
Runner-up	Fleur East
Notable returnees	Fleur East (2) Chloe Jasmine (3) Amy Connelly (5) Jake Quickenden (9) Lydia Lucy (10) Paul Akister (10) Tom Mann (10) Barclay Beales (10) Chloe O'Gorman (10)
Ratings	8.61 (millions)
Chronology
Previous	Series 10
Next	Series 12

Series 11 of The X Factor premiered on August 30, 2014 and ended on December 14, 2014. This series is the first to be broadcast on American television with the first episode being aired on AXS TV the day after the UK premiere.

This series was won by 29-year pop-rock singer Ben Haenow, who was mentored by Simon Cowell in the Over 26s category.  This was his first win as a mentor since Leona Lewis in Series 3 and his third overall. Fellow finalists Stereo Kicks, Fleur East and Andrea Faustini also secured record deals after the show with minor success.

It was watched by an average of 8.6 million viewers - around 800,000 less than the previous series.

Production

After three years of judging The X Factor USA, Simon Cowell returned to the judging panel alongside and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, who was judging on the show for the first time since 2010 and newcomer Mel B. They replaced former judges Sharon Osbourne, Gary Barlow and Nicole Scherzinger. Louis Walsh remained as the only judge to have been on all eleven seasons.  Dermot O'Leary returned as the host for the eighth time.

Matt Richardson and Caroline Flack were replaced by DJ Sarah-Jane Crawford as the presenter of The Xtra Factor.

Brian Friedman, who served as creative director from series 4-7 before returning to work on the first three live shows of Series 9, returned to replace Jerry Reeve and Mark "Swany" Swanhart.

Judges

Louis Walsh	Mel B	Cheryl Fernandez-Versini	Simon Cowell

Twists/Changes

Age Limit: The minimum age was lowered from 16 to 14, like in Series 4 and 5. Also the category age limit was raised from 25 to 27, which meant that soloists aged 26 and younger were in the Boys and Girls categories and soloists aged 27 and older were in the Over 26s rather than the Over 25s.

Wildcard: There were four Wildcards this season, raising the number of finalists from 12 to 16. The twist was that the judges would choose another category's wildcard, and not their own. This was a change to Series 9 where the wildcard was voted for by the public.

Double Elimination: Due to the increased number of finalists, double eliminations were required to narrow down the competition in ten weeks.

Saturday Elimination: During the double elimination in weeks four and seven, the first act was eliminated on Saturday rather than Sunday.

Guest Judge At The Final: As Mel B was absent from the Saturday Final due to illness, former judge, Tulisa served as the guest judge for the Saturday Final.

Finalists

Act		Category	Finish	Elimination
	Blonde Electra 22-24, Düsseldorf, Germany	Groups	16th week one	Fewest public votes
	Overload Generation 18-20, various places	Groups	15th week one	Deadlock
	Stephanie Nala 20, Cheshunt, Hertfordshire	Girls	14th week two	Fewest public votes
	Chloe Jasmine 24, Surrey	Girls	13th week two	Majority vote
	Jake Quickenden 26, Scunthorpe	Boys	12th week three	Majority vote
	Jack Walton 18, Castleford	Boys	11th week four	Flash vote
	Lola Saunders 20, East Boldon, South Tyneside	Girls	10th week four	Deadlock
	Paul Akister 25, Lancaster, Lancashire	Boys	9th week five	Deadlock
X Factor 2015 Live Tour
	Jay James 31, Saundersfoot, Pembrokeshire	Over 26s	8th week six	Deadlock
	Only The Young 17-21, London	Groups	7th week seven	Flash vote
	Stevi Ritchie 34, Colchester	Over 26s	6th week seven	Majority vote
	Stereo Kicks 15-21, various places	Groups	5th quarter-final	Deadlock
	Lauren Platt 17, Essex	Girls	4th semi-final	Majority vote
	Andrea Faustini 20, Rome, Italy	Boys	3rd final	Fewest public votes
	Fleur East 27, Walthamstow	Over 26s	Runner-up final	Fewest public votes
	Ben Haenow 29, Croydon	Over 26s	Winner final	Most public votes

Selection process

Auditions

See: List of The X Factor auditionees (series 11)

Continuing from the format from the last series, both room auditions and arena auditions were held for the judges. Locations for the auditions included: Machester, London, Newcastle and Edinburgh.

Notable returning auditionees included: Fleur East, who reached the live shows in Series 2 in the girl group Addictiv Ladies; Chloe Jasmine, who was rejected by the judges at her audition in Series 3; Amy Connelly, who reached judges' houses in Series 5; Jake Quickenden, who reached judges' houses in Series 9; Lydia Lucy, who reached bootcamp in Series 10; Tom Mann, who reached bootcamp in series 10; Barclay Beales, who reached bootcamp in series 10; and Paul Akister, who reached judges houses in series 10.

Bootcamp

A total of 114 acts successfully reached the bootcamp this year. They were put into groups and took part in a sing-off, where the judges cut half of the acts, leaving only 57 acts to compete for the six chair challenge.

Six Chair Challenge

See: Six Chair Challenge (series 11)

Summary of six chair challenge

Judge	Category	Chairs
		1	2	3	4	5	6
Fernandez-Versini	Girls	Lola Saunders	Lauren Platt	Kerrianne Covell	Stephanie Nala	Chloe Jasmine	Emily Middlemas
Mel B	Boys	Jake Quickenden	Jordan Morris	Danny Dearden	Paul Akister	Jack Walton	Andrea Faustini
Cowell	Over 26s	Jay James	Ben Haenow	Fleur East	Stevi Ritchie	Helen Fulthorpe	Lizzy Pattinson
Walsh	Groups	The Brooks	Stereo Kicks	Blonde Electra	Rumour Has It	Only The Young	Concept

Judges' Houses

See: Judges' Houses (series 11)

Summary of judges' houses

Judge	Category	Location	Guest Mentor	Acts Eliminated	Wildcard
Walsh	Groups	Bermuda	Tulisa	Concept, New Girl Group, The Brooks	Overload Generation*
Mel B	Boys	Cancún	Emma Bunton	Danny Dearden, Jordan Morris	Jack Walton
Cowell	Over 26s	Los Angeles	Sinitta	Helen Fulthorpe, Lizzy Pattinson	Stevi Ritchie
Fernandez-Versini	Girls	Nice	Tinie Tempah	Kerrianne Covell, Emily Middlemas	Lola Saunders

*Overload Generation were originally eliminated during Boot Camp after being switched out in the six chair challenge. Despite this, Mel B chose them as Walsh's Wildcard act over the three groups that had been eliminated during the Judges Houses round.

Live Shows

There were ten weeks of live shows. Four wildcards were chosen with a twist: judges would choose each other's returning act. There would also be, because of the last twist, double eliminations to narrow down the 16 finalists.

Results Summary

Weekly results per act
Week		1		2		3	4		5	6	7		Quarter-Final	Semi-Final	Final
Eliminated
	Ben Haenow	4th 8.7%		4th 9.1%		3rd 10.1%	1st 12.2%		1st 14.8%	1st 16.4%	1st 19.4%		1st 26.4%	1st 36.5%	1st 45.1%	Winner 57.2%*
	Fleur East	5th 6.0%		7th 6.0%		5th 9.3%	6th 9.4%		5th 10.8%	2nd 14.0%	2nd 16.1%		3rd 17.9%	2nd 24.3%	2nd 32.7%	Runner-Up 34.3%*
	Andrea Faustini	1st 19.2%		1st 14.5%		1st 14.4%	2nd 11.9%		2nd 14.0%	4th 12.7%	6th 13.2%		2nd 21.0%	4th 19.1%	3rd 22.2%	Eliminated (final)
	Lauren Platt	2nd 10.4%		2nd 12.7%		2nd 11.8%	4th 11.0%		3rd 13.1%	3rd 13.2%	3rd 16.0%		4th 17.8%	3rd 20.1%	Eliminated (semi-final)
	Stereo Kicks	11th 4.6%		12th 4.4%		6th 8.9%	9th 8.3%		4th 12.4%	5th 12.2%	4th 15.3%		5th 16.9%	Eliminated (quarter-final)
	Stevi Ritchie	10th 4.9%		8th 5.9%		7th 7.4%	3rd 11.5%		6th 10.3%	7th 10.8%	5th 14.7%		Eliminated (week 7)
	Only The Young	13th 4.0%		9th 5.6%		11th 5.2%	7th 9.0%		7th 8.5%	6th 12.2%	7th 5.3%
	Jay James	7th 5.5%		5th 7.6%		8th 7.1%	8th 8.3%		8th 8.1%	8th 8.5%	Eliminated (week 6)
	Paul Akister	3rd 10.0%		3rd 9.9%		4th 9.4%	6th 9.5%		9th 8.0%	Eliminated (week 5)
	Lola Saunders	6th 5.7%		6th 7.6%		9th 6.9%	10th 6.3%		Eliminated (week 4)
	Jack Walton	9th 5.0%		10th 5.3%		10th 5.3%	11th 2.6%
	Jake Quickenden	8th 5.1%		11th 4.8%		12th 4.2%	Eliminated (week 3)
	Chloe Jasmine	12th 4.3%		13th 4.0%		Eliminated (week 2)
	Stephanie Nala	14th 2.9%		14th 2.6%
	Overload Generation	15th 2.7%		Eliminated (week 1)
	Blonde Electra	16th 1.0%
Bottom Two		Nala, Overload Generation		Jasmine, Stereo Kicks		Only The Young, Quickenden	Saunders, Stereo Kicks		Akister, James	James, Ritchie	Faustini, Ritchie		Platt, Stereo Kicks	Faustini, Platt	No sing-off or judges' votes: results were based on public votes alone
Walsh's vote to eliminate		Nala		Jasmine		Quickenden	Saunders		Akister	Ritchie	Ritchie		Platt	Platt
Mel B's vote to eliminate		Nala		Jasmine		Only The Young	Saunders		James	James	Ritchie		Platt	Platt
Fernandez-Versini's vote to eliminate		Overload Generation		Stereo Kicks		Quickenden	Stereo Kicks		James	James	Ritchie		Stereo Kicks	Faustini
Cowell's vote to eliminate		Overload Generation		Jasmine		Quickenden	Stereo Kicks		Akister	Ritchie	Faustini		Stereo Kicks	Platt
Eliminated		Blonde Electra 1.0% To Save	Overload Generation 2 of 4 votes Deadlock	Stephanie Nala 2.6% To Save	Chloe Jasmine 3 of 4 votes Majoity	Jake Quickenden 3 of 4 votes Majority	Jack Walton 2.6% To Save	Lola Saunders 2 of 4 votes Deadlock	Paul Akister 2 of 4 votes Deadlock	Jay James 2 of 4 votes Deadlock	Only The Young 5.3% To Save	Stevi Ritchie 3 of 4 votes Majority	Stereo Kicks 2 of 4 votes Deadlock	Lauren Platt 3 of 4 votes Majority	Andrea Faustini 22.2% To Save	Fleur East 34.3% To Win

• In the Sunday Final, Andrea Faustini received 8.5% of the public vote despite being eliminated already.

Ratings

Episode	Air date	Duration (minutes)	Share (%)	Official ITV rating (millions)	Official ITV HD rating (millions)	Total viewers (millions)	Weekly rank
Auditions 1	August 30, 2014	85	40.9	8.33	1.76	10.09	2
Auditions 2	August 31, 2014	60	32.2	7.48	1.36	8.84	3
Auditions 3	September 6, 2014	80	39.4	8.08	1.52	9.60	2
Auditions 4	September 7, 2014	65	28.4	7.03	1.46	8.49	4
Auditions 5	September 13, 2014	80	38.9	8.09	1.62	9.71	2
Auditions 6	September 14, 2014	60	32.9	7.61	1.47	9.08	3
Auditions 7	September 20, 2014	80	39.2	8.13	1.57	9.70	3
Auditions 8	September 21, 2014	60	35.2	7.72	1.63	9.35	4
Bootcamp 1	September 26, 2014	60	23.3	5.62	1.19	6.81	17
Bootcamp 2	September 27, 2014	80	32.3	7.16	1.31	8.47	5
Bootcamp 3	September 28, 2014	60	35.4	8.16	1.42	9.58	2
Judges' houses 1	October 3, 2014	60	27.7	6.08	1.20	7.28	17
Judges' houses 2	October 4, 2014	80	30.4	6.76	1.40	8.16	7
Judges' houses 3	October 5, 2014	60	33.9	7.78	1.80	9.58	4
Live show 1	October 11, 2014	150	31.3	6.74	1.57	8.31	8
Live results 1	October 12, 2014	60	33.7	7.57	1.75	9.32	4
Live show 2	October 18, 2014	140	33.2	6.74	1.65	8.39	8
Live results 2	October 19, 2014	60	33.6	7.45	1.52	8.97	4
Live show 3	October 25, 2014	130	31.6	6.49	1.53	8.02	9
Live results 3	October 26, 2014	60	31.1	6.82	1.39	8.21	8
Live show 4	November 1, 2014	135	31.7	6.83	1.34	8.17	8
Live results 4	November 2, 2014	60	28.9	6.69	1.42	8.11	9
Live show 5	November 8, 2014	105	33.2	7.01	1.57	8.58	7
Live results 5	November 9, 2014	60	27.6	6.54	1.31	7.85	10
Live show 6	November 15, 2014	100	32.6	6.74	1.54	8.28	9
Live results 6	November 16, 2014	60	31.9	7.22	1.64	8.86	6
Live show 7	November 22, 2014	100	32.4	6.84	1.39	8.23	9
Live results 7	November 23, 2014	60	30.4	6.84	1.43	8.27	8
Live show 8	November 29, 2014	105	33.1	6.96	1.42	8.38	11
Live results 8	November 30, 2014	60	30.4	6.84	1.46	8.30	12
Live show 9	December 6, 2014	90	31.0	6.25	1.48	7.73	15
Live results 9	December 7, 2014	60	31.4	7.12	1.53	8.65	11
Live final	December 13, 2014	125	35.8	7.34	1.59	8.93	4
Live final results	December 14, 2014	125	35.2	8.03	1.85	9.88	3
Series average		N/A	32.7	7.11	1.49	8.61	N/A

Controversies

Adam Miller

In July 2014, it was reported that auditionee Adam Miller was suing producers of the show for "cruel" treatment, claiming that they urged him to audition and persuaded him that he "wouldn't be embarrassing" himself, but he was then laughed at by Cowell during his audition which caused much controversy. Miller reportedly required counselling, and said, "I've been lied to, manipulated and used by the show and I can't be the only one. It might be Simon Cowell and it might be The X Factor, but that's wrong and I'm not going to let them get away with it. They approached me. They gave me a bit of self-confidence, then cruelly and deliberately stripped it away to make good TV." A spokesperson confirmed that Miller's audition would not be broadcast.

Chloe Jasmine

There were allegations of favouritism after Chloe Jasmine was allowed to audition twice. She apparently fluffed her arena audition by forgetting her words and bursting into tears, but none of this was shown on television. Instead, viewers saw Jasmine sail through to bootcamp after wowing the judges on a different night and singing the song "Why Don't You Do Right", tricking them into thinking that that had been her only audition. However, a show insider claimed that Chloe was given a second chance because she was going through a rough time: "Chloe was given a second chance as she was upset during her first performance. She had recently split up with her boyfriend so she wasn't in a fit state to perform. We gave her the chance to go away and compose herself. This does happen and the only reason it wasn't seen on the show was that there wasn't enough time to fit all of this into one episode."

Stereo Kicks

During The Xtra Factor after the second results show, in which Stereo Kicks took part in the sing-off, Crawford asked Walsh, their mentor, about them. He said, live on television, that he "never wanted eight [boys in the band]", "Simon put them together" and generally insinuated that he wanted to cut several members from the band. During several interviews between the week 2 results and the week 3 performance, Stereo Kicks mentioned how disappointed they were that their mentor didn't seem to want them, and there were rumours that the band would be split up during the week 3 live performances. These rumours turned out to be false, and Cowell made Walsh apologise to the band after their week 3 performance.

Stereo Kicks member Jake Sims faced controversy for tweeting about drug use whilst on the show, leaving his place in the band uncertain, yet he ended up staying. Stereo Kicks announced they had split up on 18 July 2015.

Fleur East

After Fleur East completed her performance in week 2, Mel B commented that East had allowed the backing vocals of the track to drown out her own, and accused her of "cheating." This caused a massive uproar backstage after the live show had ended, especially between Mel B and Cowell, East's mentor. The following week, after East's performance, Mel B commented that East had proven her wrong all along, praised her for her performance and retracted her cheating allegations from the previous week.

Also, as the semi-finals approached, the other semi-finalists, Andrea Faustini, Ben Haenow and Lauren Platt, were reported to have complained about the judges apparently setting East up to win, with a source saying "It's beginning to look obvious the judges want her to win. It may as well be called The F Factor – it's very unfair." Haenow later stated in an interview that the rumours were false, and that their mentor Cowell is not biased towards any of his acts.

Judges comments

During the fourth live show, Fernandez-Versini said that her act Lola Saunders kept the theme of Halloween by having mentally unstable people dancing behind in straitjackets while performing the Gnarls Barkley song "Crazy", this caused problems to charities that help mental health suffers and no public apology has been issued since.

Results show performances

During the results show of the semi-finals, Idina Menzel and Michael Bublé performed the holiday classic "Baby, It's Cold Outside", afterwards Mel B and Fernandez-Versini refused to stand, claiming it was because of nerves as their artists were in the bottom two and were unable to move in their dresses. Many outlets reported this as false as they were both seen dancing to Fifth Harmony and were lip synching through the track.

Louis Walsh accidentally groping Mel B on live TV

During The Xtra Factor after the semi-final results show, Mel B scolded Walsh for accidentally grabbing her bum during an interview. Visibly irritated she moved away from Walsh, who said he was only looking after her. Crawford and the other judges, Cowell and Fernandez-Versini, tried to reassure her that she was "safe" while laughing off the gesture. After resurfacing on social media in July 2018, the clip sparked outrage around the normalcy of sexual harassment. The video caused a debate among users with some defending Walsh based on his alleged homosexuality and the justification that he was unaware of what he was doing. Others pointed out if it can happen so openly in a public setting there is a correlation to how frequently it may happen behind closed doors. Walsh stated on 21 July that he grabbed Mel B's bottom as a joke, but conceded that the gesture was no longer politically correct due to social media reaction.

Team Rankings

1. Over 26s (mentored by Simon Cowell)

2. Boys (mentored by Mel B)

3. Girls (mentored by Cheryl Fernandez-Versini)

4. Groups (mentored by Louis Walsh)

Trivia

• As with Series 2 to Series 6 and Series 8, the winning act and the runner-up performed the same potential winner's singles. However, if Andrea made the final two, this wouldn't have happened, as he had a different choice given to him.
• This is the first series since the third series where a male judge emerged as the winning mentor.
• This is the only series with Simon and Cheryl together, where Simon's highest-placing act placed higher than Cheryl's highest-placing act in the competition.
• This is the only UK series when a female mentor, who is mentoring the Boys category doesn't win. Although Andrea Faustini did start as the favourite to win, before being overtaken by Ben Haenow.
• This is the only series Cheryl appears with without having an act in the final where her highest-placing act narrowly crashed out at the semi-final, therefore making this her weakest year as a mentor even though she would have had an act in the final if the result went to deadlock in the semi-final. This is also the only series where all her acts were eliminated before the final two.
  • This is also the only series when she appears when her highest-placing act isn't either the winner or the runner-up.
• This is the second series followed by series seven where the lowest-placing act in the Final would have been eliminated in Week 7 or the semi-final if the result went to deadlock either time.
• This is the second series where only two male acts won the public vote throughout the live shows.
• In this series, only all three returning judges sent the result to deadlock and had the last vote in the Final Showdown during the live shows.
• This is the third series preceding the sixth series and the ninth series that featured the result going to deadlock five times.
  • This is the only series where every judge had at least one of their acts eliminated via deadlock.
• This is the only series where Louis had all of his acts eliminated by the public vote with two of his acts were eliminated via fewest public votes and the other two were eliminated via deadlock.
  • This feature happened in 2009, 2012, and 2015.
• This is the second series where if the result went to deadlock in Week 7, Mel B would have been the first judge to lose all her acts instead of Louis. This previously happened in 2013.
• This is Simon’s most successful year as he not only had two acts in the Final Two but also all of his acts on The X Factor 2015 Live Tour and advance to Week 6.
• This is the only series to feature Mel B on The X Factor UK.