The X Factor UK (Series 12)

The X Factor UK (Series 12)
Series	12
Broadcast from	29 August 2015 – 13 December 2015
Judges	Nick Grimshaw Rita Ora Cheryl Fernandez-Versini Simon Cowell
Presenters	Caroline Flack Olly Murs Rochelle Humes Melvin Odoom
Network	ITV ITV2
Number of finalists	13
Winner	Louisa Johnson
Runner-up	Reggie 'N' Bollie
Notable returnees	Havva Rebke (9) Monica Michael (11) Rumour Has It (11) Scarlett Quinn (11)
Ratings	7.8 (millions)
Chronology
Previous	Series 11
Next	Series 13

Series 12 of The X Factor premiered on August 29, 2015 and ended on December 13, 2015.

This series was won by 17-year old soul singer Louisa Johnson who was mentored by Rita Ora. She overtook Joe McElderry to become the youngest winner in the show's history.  Fellow finalists Reggie 'N' Bollie also secured a deal with minor success.

It was watched by an average of 7.8 million viewers - 800,000 viewers less than the previous year.

Production

Dermot O'Leary, who had presented the main show on ITV for eight series, announced his departure in March 2015 and was replaced by Caroline Flack and Olly Murs, who had both previously co-presented spin-off show The Xtra Factor on ITV2.  Sarah-Jane Crawford, who was the presenter of said spin-off in Series 11, also left and was replaced by Rochelle Humes and Melvin Odoom. 

Louis Walsh, the only judge who had been on the show from its inception in 2004, quit and was replaced by BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw. Mel B was also replaced by Series 9 guest judge and former The Voice UK coach, Rita Ora. Simon Cowell and Cheryl Fernandez-Versini both returned for their ninth and fifth series as judges, respectively.

The show's announcer, Peter Dickson, left the show during the pre-live stage of the competition, but later returned

In a change to previous series, judges' auditions were only held in Manchester and London.

Judges

Nick Grimshaw	Rita Ora	Cheryl Fernandez-Versini	Simon Cowell

Twists/Changes

Two Presenters Of The Main Show: This is the only series to feature two presenters of the main show. The two co-presenters were Olly Murs and Caroline Flack.

Arena Auditions: After two series of both room auditions and arena auditions, the room auditions were axed and the format returned to the one present since Series 6.

Age Limit: The minimum age returned to 16, after being 14 on the last series. Also the age limit was raised from 26 to 27, soloists aged 27 and over were part of the Over 27s rather than the Over 25s or Over 26s

Public Chosen Mentors: Fans were able to vote via hashtags on Twitter to determine which of the judges was allocated each of the four categories (for example, #SimonBoys or #RitaGroups). The judges learnt the result during the six chair challenge.

Judges' Houses: For the first time ever, the results of the Judges' Houses were revealed live after having all acts and their respective mentors watch the pre-recorded performances.

Wildcard: There was one wildcard this season, chosen by all four judges.

Shortened Live Shows: Because of ITV being contractually obliged to broadcast the 2015 Rugby World Cup during October, production decided to make the live shows happen through seven weeks instead of the regular ten. A rejected option was to air a bumper show on Sunday nights on these weekends.

Third Xtra Factor: The Xtra Factor ran a third weekly show on Thursday nights during the live stage, previewing what viewers would see on the main show.

Finalists

Act		Category	Finish	Elimination
	Bupsi 38, Leeds	Over 27s	13th week one	Fewest public votes
	Alien Uncovered 17-24, various places	Groups	12th week one	Majority vote
	Kiera Weathers 18, St. Helens	Girls	11th week two	Fewest public votes
	Seann Miley Moore 25, Sydney, Australia	Boys	10th week two	Deadlock
	Max Stone 27, Devon	Over 27s	9th week three	Fewest public votes
	Monica Michael 26, North London	Girls	8th week three	Deadlock
X Factor 2016 Live Tour
	Mason Noise 22, Birmingham	Boys	7th week four	Flash vote
	Anton Stephans 45, Suffolk	Over 27s	6th week four	Majority vote
	4th Impact 19-28, Santiago City, Philippines	Groups	5th quarter-final	Deadlock
	Lauren Murray 25, North London	Girls	4th semi-final	Deadlock
	Ché Chesterman 19, Langdon, Essex	Boys	3rd final	Fewest public votes
	Reggie 'N' Bollie 29-31, Ghana	Groups	Runners-up final	Fewest public votes
	Louisa Johnson 17, Essex	Girls	Winner final	Most public votes

Note: Even though Seann Miley Moore did not finish in the top 7, thus not qualifying for the Live Tour, he was chosen to be part of it as an eighth act by the judges.

Selection process

Auditions

See: List of The X Factor UK auditionees (series 12)

The room auditions were scrapped and therefore, the format saw the return of the arena auditions. Locations for the auditions included only Machester and London.

Notable returning auditionees included: Havva Rebke, who reached bootcamp in series 9; Monica Michael, who was controversially eliminated during the Six Chair Challenge in Series 11, Rumour Has It, who reached judges' houses in Series 11 as an unnamed girl group created by the judges and Megan McKenna who was eliminated at Bootcamp in Series 11.

Bootcamp

See: Bootcamp (series 12)

A total of 180 acts successfully reached the bootcamp this year. The first challenge of bootcamp was to perform in groups of five acts, with a mix of at least three categories in each group, and perform a song from a list. The judges would decide immediately after each performance which of the 180 acts would pass the challenge and which would be eliminated. For the second challenge of bootcamp, the 93 successful acts were to perform a solo performance to the judges, who gave little or no feedback to them. At the end of the challenge, the judges decided on who would be successful and who would be eliminated. Grimshaw was absent from the second day of the challenge due to his commitments with BBC Radio 1, although partially assisted Cowell, Fernandez-Versini and Ora with their decisions via Skype video link. The 64 acts that passed through this stage went on to face the six-chair challenge. It was reported that the standard of auditions were so high that acts who got a "yes" from all four judges were not necessarily guaranteed a place at bootcamp.

Six Chair Challenge

See: Six Chair Challenge (series 12)

Summary of six chair challenge

Judge	Category	Chairs
		1	2	3	4	5	6
Ora	Girls	Kiera Weathers	Louisa Johnson	Monica Michael	Lauren Murray	Chloe Paige	Havva Rebke
Grimshaw	Boys	Ben Clark	Ché Chesterman	Josh Daniel	Simon Lynch	Tom Bleasby*	Seann Miley Moore
Fernandez-Versini	Groups	Menn on Poinnt	Alien	BEKLN Mile	4th Power	Melody Stone	New Kings Order
Cowell	Over 27s	Max Stone	Ebru	Jennifer Phillips	Bupsi	Kerrie-Anne Phillips	Anton Stephans

*Tom Bleasby was originally put through, but it was reported on 12 October that he had withdrawn for personal reasons. On 15 October, it was announced that Mason Noise would replace Bleasby at Judges' Houses.

Judges' Houses

See: Judges' Houses (series 12)

Summary of judges' houses

Judge	Category	Location	Guest mentor(s)	Contestants eliminated	Wildcard
Fernandez-Versini	Groups	Rome	Jess Glynne	BEKLN Mile, Melody Stone, New Kings Order	N/A
Cowell	Over 27s	Loire Valley, France	Louis Tomlinson	Ebru Ellis, Jennifer Phillips, Kerrie-Anne Phillips	N/A
Grimshaw	Boys	The Cotswolds	Mark Ronson	Ben Clark, Josh Daniel, Simon Lynch	N/A
Ora	Girls	Los Angeles	Meghan Trainor	Chloe Paige, Havva Rebke	Monica Michael

Live Shows

There were seven weeks of live shows, a series first. This happened because ITV was obliged by contract to broadcast the 2015 Rugby World Cup, which took the show's Saturday spot throughout October. One wildcard was elected by all four judges after the live Judges' Houses results. There would also be, because of the short number of weeks, double eliminations to narrow down the 13 finalists.

Results Summary

Weekly results per act
Week		1		2		3		4		Quarter-Final	Semi-Final	Final
Eliminated
	Louisa Johnson	1st 15.9%		1st 15.3%		1st 16.4%		2nd 21.5%		3rd 21.1%	1st 31.5%	1st 44.5%	Winner 53.9%*
	Reggie 'N' Bollie	7th 7.4%		2nd 13.0%		5th 13.0%		1st 21.6%		2nd 22.1%	2nd 27.0%	2nd 35.2%	Runner-Up 38.9%*
	Ché Chesterman	5th 8.7%		3rd 12.5%		3rd 14.0%		5th 12.8%		1st 22.2%	3rd 20.9%	3rd 20.3%	Eliminated (final)
	Lauren Murray	6th 8.4%		4th 11.2%		2nd 14.1%		3rd 14.8%		4th 18.4%	4th 20.6%	Eliminated (semi-final)
	4th Impact	2nd 11.2%		5th 9.0%		4th 13.2%		4th 13.8%		5th 16.2%	Eliminated (quarter-final)
	Anton Stephans	3rd 10.7%		7th 7.5%		7th 8.0%		6th 12.3%		Eliminated (week 4)
	Mason Noise	9th 6.1%		9th 6.1%		6th 9.8%		7th 3.2%
	Monica Michael	4th 9.1%		8th 6.3%		8th 6.1%		Eliminated (week 3)
	Max Stone	10th 5.8%		6th 8.5%		9th 5.4%
	Seann Miley Moore	8th 7.3%		10th 5.5%		Eliminated (week 2)
	Kiera Weathers	12th 3.4%		11th 5.1%
	Alien Uncovered	11th 4.8%		Eliminated (week 1)
	Bupsi	13th 1.2%
Sing-Off		Alien Uncovered, Weathers		Moore, Noise		Michael, Stephans		Chesterman, Stephans		4th Impact, Murray	Chesterman, Murray	No sing-off or judges' votes: results were based on public votes alone
Grimshaw's vote to eliminate		Alien Uncovered		Moore		Michael		Stephans		4th Impact	Murray
Ora's vote to eliminate		Alien Uncovered		Moore		Stephans		Stephans		4th Impact	Chesterman
Fernandez-Versini's vote to eliminate		Weathers		Noise		Stephans		Stephans		Murray	Murray
Cowell's vote to eliminate		Alien Uncovered		Noise		Michael		Chesterman		Murray	Chesterman
Eliminated		Bupsi 1.2% to save	Alien Uncovered 3 of 4 votes Majority	Kiera Weathers 5.1% to save	Seann Miley Moore 2 of 4 votes Deadlock	Max Stone 5.4% to save	Monica Michael 2 of 4 votes Deadlock	Mason Noise 3.2% to save	Anton Stephans 3 of 4 votes Majority	4th Impact 2 of 4 votes Deadlock	Lauren Murray 2 of 4 votes Deadlock	Che Chesterman 20.3% to save	Reggie 'N' Bollie 38.9% to win

• In the Sunday Final, Che Chesterman received 7.2% 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 29, 2015	90	35.9	7.33	1.64	8.97	2
Auditions 2	August 30, 2015	60	27.7	6.14	1.35	7.49	11
Auditions 3	September 5, 2015	75	32.8	6.88	1.64	8.52	4
Auditions 4	September 6, 2015	75	29.6	6.43	1.34	7.77	10
Auditions 5	September 12, 2015	75	36.5	7.22	1.58	8.80	4
Auditions 6	September 13, 2015	60	30.9	6.76	1.38	8.14	8
Auditions 7	September 19, 2015	60	30.9	6.76	1.38	8.14	8
Bootcamp 1	September 20, 2015	120	31.3	6.51	1.70	8.21	9
Bootcamp 2	September 27, 2015	120	31.3	6.33	1.63	7.96	14
Six Chair Challenge 1	October 4, 2015	120	30.8	6.67	1.66	8.33	8
Six Chair Challenge 2	October 11, 2015	120	29.7	6.87	1.66	8.53	9
Six Chair Challenge 3	October 18, 2015	120	31.1	6.79	1.82	8.61	11
Judges' houses 1	October 24, 2015	145	29.6	6.08	1.67	7.75	16
Judges' houses 2	October 25, 2015	90	25.5	5.57	1.57	7.14	25
Live show 1	October 31, 2015	145	27.4	5.32	1.63	6.95	25
Live results 1	November 1, 2015	60	27.3	5.65	1.52	7.17	21
Live show 2	November 7, 2015	130	30.2	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA
Live results 2	November 8, 2015	60	28.7	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA
Live show 3	November 14, 2015	105	28.6	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA
Live results 3	November 15, 2015	60	29.2	TBA	TBA	TBA	TBA

Controversies

Bootcamp

It was reported that before bootcamp, some contestants who were given three or four "yes" votes from the judges were sent emails from the producers of the show saying that they would not be attending bootcamp due to limited places and a higher standard of auditions. One contestant who received such an email said, "I feel X Factor needs to be shamed for this shocking incident. They are playing with people's lives." A spokesperson for the show said this was "kinder and fairer than an immediate 'cull' of singers on arrival at bootcamp, which has happened in previous series."

Mason Noise

During the six chair challenge, after performing for his mentor Nick Grimshaw, 22-year-old singer Mason Noise complained that his audition was only broadcast for 47 seconds while other contestants were featured for up to 10 minutes. Head judge Simon Cowell responded by saying "You should feel lucky to be on this show. Why don't you shut up?" and called Noise an "arsehole". Noise was booed by the crowd before walking off the stage. Noise later told the Daily Mirror: "[Simon] lost control and it was uncalled for. Especially as all I was doing was saying an opinion. I think that no one has ever questioned him before and no one has questioned the format of the show. Something needs to change on that show. Listen to the kids, at the end of the day I have a lot of support on Twitter."

On 12 October, Tom Bleasby had withdrawn from the show and consequently, there was a spare place at judges' houses. On 15 October, Grimshaw announced that Noise would replace Bleasby at judges' houses.

Monica Michael

Monica Michael issued an apology when, after being voted out in week 3, she appeared to make a gun gesture with her hand and shouted "bang, bang, bang", as a form of saluting the remaining finalists. Viewers called her "inconsiderate" and "offensive", as it was not long after the November 2015 Paris attacks. Michael took to Twitter to say, "I want to apologies [sic] for any offence caused on the @TheXFactor tongiht. I wasn't thinking beyond the moment & it was insensitive, sorry."

Caroline Flack and Olly Murs

Presenters Flack and Murs were criticised throught the series. Flack's absense from several auditions caused confusion and their lack of chemistry was criticised, with a source from the show saying, "Bosses have been aware of the criticism aimed at Olly and Caroline over their lack of chemistry. They were expected to inject some fun and energy but that has yet to be seen. We've seen this year's line-up undertake a big shake-up and Olly and Caroline were considered to be a safe bet." It was also stated that Flack's other commitments were discussed beforehand. A spokesperson said: "Olly and Caroline have been great additions to the show, We're very happy with them and look forward to them being centre stage when presenting on the live shows at the end of the month."

However, when the live shows started, viewers called for the return of Dermot O'Leary and called the pair's presenting "awkward" and "cringe-worthy". They were criticised for "awkward glances, long pauses and over-enthusiastic shouting" and the hashtag "#bringbackdermot" appeared on Twitter. In week 3, when Monica Michael was in the bottom two, Murs told her she had been eliminated when in fact the judges' vote had gone to deadlock and the result was yet to be announced. Murs later issued an apology saying: "I apologise to everyone tonight I made a massive f--k up at the end. It was so tense!! I'm still learning & hope that never happens again!" Isabel Mohan from The Daily Telegraph said, "We were always dreading Flack and Murs taking over from Dermot O'Leary—we knew they wouldn't be able to hack it live on primetime telly. Dermot could build up tension. Dermot could read autocues. Dermot could speak properly with no lazy talk of 'the bottom free'. And, most of all, DERMOT DIDN'T TELL PEOPLE THEY'D BEEN VOTED OFF BEFORE HE WAS SUPPOSED TO! [...] What an absolute shambles."

Team Rankings

1. Girls (mentored by Rita Ora)

2. Groups (mentored by Cheryl Fernandez-Versini)

3. Boys (mentored by Nick Grimshaw)

4. Over 27s (mentored by Simon Cowell)

Trivia

• As with Series 2 to Series 6, Series 8 and the previous year the winning act and the runner-up performed the same potential winner's singles.
• This was the final series to feature Rita Ora, Cheryl, Caroline Flack and Olly Murs on The X Factor UK.
• This was the only series where the final three acts won the public vote throughout the live shows.
• This series was without doubt Simon's worst year as a mentor since his highest-placing act failed to reach the quarter-final, the lowest rank his last act has ever reached.
• This is the second series where only two acts were eliminated in a majority vote following the sixth series in 2009. However, only the first act eliminated in a majority vote did not receive the fewest public votes among the two acts in the final showdown.
• This is the fourth series where one judge had all of his acts eliminated by the public vote, with his first act eliminated via deadlock, second act eliminated via flash vote, and highest-placing act finishing in third place.
  • This was previously featured in 2009, 2012, and 2014.
• This is the last series to feature Cheryl on The X Factor UK.
  • This is the only series to feature Nick Grimshaw and Rita Ora on The X Factor UK.