The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent, the winner of which receives a recording contract with the Syco Music record label. The seventh series will begin airing on ITV in 2010. The show will be presented by Dermot O'Leary, with spin-off show The Xtra Factor hosted by Konnie Huq on ITV2, who takes over from Holly Willoughby. The competition is split into several stages: auditions, bootcamp, judges' houses and live shows. Auditions took place throughout June and July 2010, with Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole returning as judges. Special guest judges were brought in to replace Dannii Minogue, who was on maternity leave. Cole missed the auditions in Manchester and bootcamp due to illness. Following bootcamp, successful acts were split into four categories: Boys for Dannii (male soloists aged 16 to 27), Girls for Cheryl (female soloists aged 16 to 27), Over-28s for Louis (soloists aged 28 and over) and Groups for Simon . Minogue is due to return for the judges' houses stage, and each judge will mentor eight acts through judges' houses. This is the first series of the show to be filmed in high definition, and will be simulcast on ITV1 HD. The acts that made it to the final were for Simon One Direction, for Cheryl, Cher Lloyd and Rebecca Ferguson and for Dannii, Matt Cardle. The top 3 acts were One Direction, Rebecca Ferguson and Matt Cardle and the winner was Matt.

Contents 1 Selection process 1.1 Applications and auditions 1.1.1 Audition venues and guest judges 1.2 Bootcamp and judges' houses 2 Live Show Details

Selection processEdit

Applications and auditionsEdit

The first appeal for applicants for series 7 was broadcast during series 6 on 5 December 2009. Applicants for the seventh series were given the opportunity to apply by uploading a video audition to the Internet. Auditions began in June 2010 in six cities: Glasgow (Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre, 9 June), Birmingham (LG Arena, 13–14 June), London (Excel Centre, 21–24 June), Dublin (Convention Centre Dublin, 28 June), Cardiff (International Arena, 2 July), and Manchester (Manchester Central, 9–11 July). Dublin returns as an audition city.

Three of the four judges from the previous series, Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole, returned to judge the auditions. Due to her pregnancy, Dannii Minogue did not attend the auditions, and was replaced by guest judges in each venue. Geri Halliwell was the first guest judge, and attended the Glasgow auditions. Singer Natalie Imbruglia was the second guest judge, appearing for the Birmingham auditions. The guest judge slot was axed for the London auditions, but continued with Katy Perry judging in Dublin, Pixie Lott judging in Cardiff and Nicole Scherzinger judging at the Manchester auditions. Cole was unable to attend the Manchester auditions due to illness, and was not replaced for these auditions.

Audition venues and guest judgesEdit

Audition city	Dates	Venue	Guest judge
Glasgow	9 June 2010	Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre	Geri Halliwell
Birmingham	13–14 June 2010	LG Arena	Natalie Imbruglia
London	21–24 June 2010	Excel Centre	None
Dublin	28 June 2010	Convention Centre Dublin	Katy Perry
Cardiff	2 July 2010	Cardiff International Arena	Pixie Lott
Manchester	9–11 July 2010	Manchester Central	Nicole Scherzinger

Bootcamp and judges' housesEdit

The bootcamp stage of the competition began on 22 July 2010 at Wembley Arena in London. Minogue continued her maternity leave, and Cole did not to attend due to her ongoing recovery from malaria. Due to the absence of both Cole and Minogue, producers of the show decided to axe bootcamp's live audience.However, Scherzinger returned as a guest judge for bootcamp, standing in for Cole as producers had planned for three judges to attend. Following bootcamp, acts will be split into four categories. This year, the Over-25s category has been changed to Over-28s at Scherzinger's suggestion, as the quality of older singers was high. The Boys and Girls categories will now comprise singers aged 16 to 27, rather than 16 to 24. It is reported that some soloists have been asked to form groups, as the Groups category was the weakest. Minogue is expected to return to the panel during the judges' houses stage of the competition, where it is reported that each judge will mentor eight acts, increased from six in previous series.

Live Show DetailsEdit

Contestant	Week 1	Week 2	Week 3	Week 4	Week 5	Week 6	Week 7	Week 8	Week 9	Week 10
										Saturday	Sunday
											Round 1	Round 2
Matt Cardle	2nd 15.14%	1st 24.39%	1st 23.97%	1st 20.60%	1st 33.41%	1st 23.16%	1st 18.44%	1st 31.95%	1st 35.84%	1st 39.92%	1st 39.83%	Winner 44.61%
Rebecca Ferguson	6th 6.51%	5th 7.99%	5th 8.46%	5th 9.79%	2nd 12.80%	2nd 18.24%	3rd 12.85%	2nd 13.98%	2nd 20.22%	2nd 25.71%	2nd 32.80%	Runner-up 38.63%
One Direction	4th 10.04%	3rd 9.84%	3rd 11.08%	4th 11.79%	3rd 12.13%	3rd 14.44%	4th 12.65%	4th 11.90%	3rd 17.38%	3rd 18.54%	3rd 20.72%	Eliminated (Round 1)
Cher Lloyd	3rd 10.04%	6th 7.17%	4th 9.12%	2nd 19.72%	5th 7.64%	5th 8.88%	8th 8.00%	3rd 13.19%	5th 11.57%	4th 15.83%	Eliminated (week 10)
Mary Byrne	1st 22.28%	2nd 18.55%	2nd 13.92%	3rd 11.98%	4th 12.02%	4th 10.66%	5th 11.97%	5th 11.29%	4th 14.99%	Eliminated (week 9)
Wagner	12th 1.91%	11th 2.47%	9th 4.50%	8th 4.77%	8th 4.21%	7th 6.30%	6th 9.90%	6th 10.48%	Eliminated (week 8)
Katie Waissel	15th 1.55%	8th 4.30%	8th 5.95%	10th 2.73%	10th 3.22%	8th 5.29%	2nd 16.82%	7th 7.21%	Eliminated (week 8)
Paije Richardson	7th 5.83%	9th 3.80%	7th 6.10%	7th 6.22%	7th 5.19%	6th 8.02%	7th 9.37%	Eliminated (week 7)
Aiden Grimshaw	5th 9.78%	4th 8.82%	6th 6.58%	6th 6.70%	6th 5.85%	9th 5.01%	Eliminated (week 6)
Treyc Cohen	8th 4.82%	10th 2.82%	12th 2.39%	9th 3.14%	9th 3.53%	Eliminated (week 5)
Belle Amie	11th 2.13%	13th 1.86%	10th 4.15%	11th 2.56%	Eliminated (week 4)
John Adeleye	9th 2.46%	7th 4.50%	11th 3.78%	Eliminated (week 3)
Diva Fever	10th 2.28%	12th 2.05%	Eliminated (week 2)
Storm Lee	13th 1.89%	14th 1.44%	Eliminated (week 2)
F.Y.D.	14th 1.71%	Eliminated (week 1)
Nicolò Festa	16th 1.36%	Eliminated (week 1)
Final showdown	F.Y.D., Katie Waissel	Belle Amie, Diva Fever	John Adeleye, Treyc Cohen	Belle Amie, Katie Waissel	Treyc Cohen, Katie Waissel	Aiden Grimshaw, Katie Waissel	Cher Lloyd, Paije Richardson	Mary Byrne, Wagner	Mary Byrne, Cher Lloyd	No final showdown or judges' vote: results are based on public votes alone
Judges voted to	Eliminate								Send through
Walsh's vote	F.Y.D.	Diva Fever	Treyc Cohen	Katie Waissel	Treyc Cohen	Katie Waissel	Paije Richardson	Wagner	Mary Byrne
Minogue's vote	F.Y.D.	Diva Fever	John Adeleye	Belle Amie	Katie Waissel	Katie Waissel	Cher Lloyd	Wagner	Cher Lloyd
Cole's vote	F.Y.D.	Diva Fever	John Adeleye	Belle Amie	None (refused)	Aiden Grimshaw	Paije Richardson	Wagner	Cher Lloyd
Cowell's vote	Katie Waissel	N/A1	John Adeleye	Katie Waissel	Treyc Cohen	Aiden Grimshaw	Paije Richardson	N/A1	Cher Lloyd
Eliminated	Nicolò Festa 1.36% to save	Storm Lee 1.44% to save	John Adeleye 3 of 4 votes Majority	Belle Amie 2 of 4 votes Deadlock	Treyc Cohen 2 of 3 votes Majority	Aiden Grimshaw 2 of 4 votes Deadlock	Paije Richardson 3 of 4 votes Majority	Katie Waissel 7.21% to save	Mary Byrne 1 of 4 votes to save	Cher Lloyd 15.83% to win	One Direction 20.72% to win	Rebecca Ferguson 38.63% to win
	F.Y.D. 3 of 4 votes Majority	Diva Fever 3 of 3 votes Majority						Wagner 3 of 3 votes Majority				Matt Cardle 44.61% to win