# The X Factor: Battle of the Stars

The X Factor: Battle of the Stars is a UK celebrity special edition of The X Factor, which screened on ITV, started on 29 May 2006 and lasting for eight consecutive nights. Pop Idol was meant to air in its place as Celebrity Pop Idol but was stopped shortly before transmission, when ITV picked The X Factor over it.
Nine celebrity acts participated, singing live in front of the nation and facing the judges of the previous The X Factor series, Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh. Voting revenues were donated to the celebrities' chosen charities.
Cowell originally axed the format after its first airing, describing as "pointless", however, a revamped variation of the format aired in 2019, titled The X Factor: Celebrity with Cowell and Walsh reprising their roles as judges and Nicole Scherzinger replacing Osbourne on the panel as well as Dermot O'Leary taking over from Kate Thornton as host.

## Contestants

Key:
    – Winner
    – Runner-up
| Act(s) | Age(s) | Category (mentor) | Known For | Result |
| Lucy Benjamin | 35 | Over 25s (Walsh) | Former EastEnders actress | Winner |
| Matt Stevens | 23 | 16-24s (Osbourne) | Rugby union player | Runner-up |
| Chris Moyles | 32 | Over 25s (Walsh) | Television & radio presenter | 3rd place |
| The Chefs | 37–50 | Groups (Cowell) | Celebrity chefs | 4th place |
| Nikki Sanderson | 22 | 16-24s (Osbourne) | Former Coronation Street actress | 5th place |
| James & Rebecca | 48 & 28 | Groups (Cowell) | Former British Army cavalry officer (Hewitt) Media personality & glamour model (Loos) | 6th place |
| Michelle Marsh | 23 | 16-24s (Osbourne) | Page 3 girl & glamour model | 7th place |
| Gillian McKeith | 46 | Over 25s (Walsh) | Nutritionist, author & television presenter | 8th place |
| Paul† & Debbie | 68 & 47 | Groups (Cowell) | Magician & television presenter (Daniels) Magician's assistant (McGee) | 9th place |
* ↑ The Chefs consists of Jean-Christophe Novelli, Aldo Zilli, Paul Rankin and Ross Burden.
* ↑ Loos replaced Andrea Catherwood, who was originally scheduled to appear as James Hewitt's singing partner, but was not allowed to appear after ITV News bosses refused to give her permission.

## Live shows
### Results summary
#### Colour key

| – | Contestant was in the bottom two and had to sing again in the final showdown |
| – | Contestant received the fewest public votes and was immediately eliminated (no final showdown) |
| Act | Show 1 | Show 2 | Show 3 | Show 4 | Show 5 | Quarter-Final | Semi-Final | Final |
| Lucy Benjamin | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Winner (day 8) |
| Matt Stevens | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Runner-up (day 8) |
| Chris Moyles | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | 3rd | Eliminated (day 7) |
| The Chefs | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | 4th | Eliminated (day 6) | Eliminated (day 6) |
| Nikki Sanderson | Safe | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | Bottom Two | Eliminated (day 5) | Eliminated (day 5) | Eliminated (day 5) |
| James & Rebecca | Safe | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | Eliminated (day 4) | Eliminated (day 4) | Eliminated (day 4) | Eliminated (day 4) |
| Michelle Marsh | Safe | Bottom Two | Bottom Two | Eliminated (day 3) | Eliminated (day 3) | Eliminated (day 3) | Eliminated (day 3) | Eliminated (day 3) |
| Gillian McKeith | Bottom Two | Bottom Two | Eliminated (day 2) | Eliminated (day 2) | Eliminated (day 2) | Eliminated (day 2) | Eliminated (day 2) | Eliminated (day 2) |
| Paul & Debbie | Bottom Two | Eliminated (day 1) | Eliminated (day 1) | Eliminated (day 1) | Eliminated (day 1) | Eliminated (day 1) | Eliminated (day 1) | Eliminated (day 1) |
| Final showdown | McKeith, Paul & Debbie | McKeith, Marsh | Benjamin, Marsh | James & Rebecca, Sanderson | The Chefs, Sanderson | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone |
| Walsh's vote to eliminate (Over 25s) | Paul & Debbie | Marsh | Marsh | James & Rebecca | Sanderson | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone |
| Osbourne's vote to eliminate (16-24s) | Paul & Debbie | McKeith | Benjamin | James & Rebecca | The Chefs | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone |
| Cowell's vote to eliminate (Groups) | McKeith | McKeith | Marsh | Sanderson | Sanderson | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone | No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone |
| Eliminated | Paul & Debbie 2 of 3 votes Majority | Gillian McKeith 2 of 3 votes Majority | Michelle Marsh 2 of 3 votes Majority | James & Rebecca 2 of 3 votes Majority | Nikki Sanderson 2 of 3 votes Majority | The Chefs Public vote to save | Chris Moyles Public vote to save | Matt Stevens Public vote to win |

### Live show details
#### Show 1 (29 May 2006)

Contestants' performances on the first live show :
| Act | Order | Song | Result |
| Paul & Debbie | 1 | "Let Me Entertain You" | Eliminated |
| Nikki Sanderson | 2 | "I've Got the Music in Me" | Safe |
| Gillian McKeith | 3 | "I Just Want to Make Love to You" | Bottom two |
| The Chefs | 4 | "Uptown Girl" | Safe |
| Matt Stevens | 5 | "Mack the Knife" | Safe |
| Lucy Benjamin | 6 | "Put Your Records On" | Safe |
| James & Rebecca | 7 | "Addicted to Love" | Safe |
| Michelle Marsh | 8 | "River Deep – Mountain High" | Safe |
| Chris Moyles | 9 | "Ain't That a Kick in the Head?" | Safe |

##### Judges' votes to eliminate

* Cowell: Gillian McKeith - backed his own act, Paul & Debbie.
* Walsh: Paul & Debbie - backed his own act, Gillian McKeith.
* Osbourne: Paul & Debbie - based on the final showdown performance.

#### Show 2 (30 May 2006)

Contestants' performances on the second live show :
| Act | Order | Song | Result |
| Chris Moyles | 1 | "You Really Got Me" | Safe |
| Michelle Marsh | 2 | "Eternal Flame" | Bottom two |
| The Chefs | 3 | "Volare" | Safe |
| Lucy Benjamin | 4 | "Walking on Sunshine" | Safe |
| Gillian McKeith | 5 | "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's in His Kiss)" | Eliminated |
| James & Rebecca | 6 | "Baby, It's Cold Outside" | Safe |
| Nikki Sanderson | 7 | "Emotion" | Safe |
| Matt Stevens | 8 | "Smooth" | Safe |

##### Judges' votes to eliminate

* Walsh: Michelle Marsh - backed his own act, Gillian McKeith.
* Osbourne: Gillian McKeith - backed her own act, Michelle Marsh.
* Cowell: Gillian McKeith - based on the final showdown performance.

#### Show 3 (31 May 2006)

Contestants' performances on the third live show :
| Act | Order | Song | Result |
| Lucy Benjamin | 1 | "Get the Party Started" | Bottom two |
| Nikki Sanderson | 2 | "The Voice Within" | Safe |
| Chris Moyles | 3 | "What a Wonderful World" | Safe |
| Michelle Marsh | 4 | "Ironic" | Eliminated |
| The Chefs | 5 | "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" | Safe |
| Matt Stevens | 6 | "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" | Safe |
| James & Rebecca | 7 | "Rock DJ" | Safe |

##### Judges' votes to eliminate

* Osbourne: Lucy Benjamin - backed her own act, Michelle Marsh.
* Walsh: Michelle Marsh - backed his own act, Lucy Benjamin.
* Cowell: Michelle Marsh - based on the final showdown performance.

#### Show 4 (1 June 2006)

Contestants' performances on the fourth live show :
| Act | Order | Song | Result |
| Nikki Sanderson | 1 | "I Love Rock 'n' Roll" | Bottom two |
| Chris Moyles | 2 | "Beautiful Day" | Safe |
| James & Rebecca | 3 | "The Way You Make Me Feel" | Eliminated |
| Matt Stevens | 4 | "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" | Safe |
| Lucy Benjamin | 5 | "See the Day" (Girls Aloud) | Safe |
| The Chefs | 6 | "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" | Safe |

##### Judges' votes to eliminate

* Cowell: Nikki Sanderson - backed his own act, James & Rebecca.
* Osbourne: James & Rebecca - backed her own act, Nikki Sanderson
* Walsh: James & Rebecca - based on the final showdown performance.

#### Show 5 (2 June 2006)

Contestants' performances on the fifth live show :
| Act | Order | First Song | Order | Second song | Result |
| The Chefs | 1 | "Get Back" | 6 | "That's Amore" | Bottom two |
| Nikki Sanderson | 2 | "Run to You" | 7 | "Shackles (Praise You)" | Eliminated |
| Chris Moyles | 3 | "Achilles Heel" | 8 | "Avenues and Alleyways" | Safe |
| Lucy Benjamin | 4 | "Call Me" | 9 | "Killing Me Softly with His Song" | Safe |
| Matt Stevens | 5 | "Nobody Knows" | 10 | "Piano Man" | Safe |

##### Judges' votes to eliminate

* Osbourne: The Chefs - backed her own act, Nikki Sanderson.
* Cowell: Nikki Sanderson - backed his own act, The Chefs.
* Walsh: Nikki Sanderson - based on the final showdown performance.

#### Show 6: Quarter-final (3 June 2006)

Contestants' performances on the sixth live show :
| Act | Order | First Song | Order | Second song | Result |
| Matt Stevens | 1 | "Moondance" | 5 | "Desperado" | Safe |
| The Chefs | 2 | "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" | 6 | "Livin' la Vida Loca" | Eliminated |
| Chris Moyles | 3 | "That's My Goal" | 7 | "Burning Love" | Safe |
| Lucy Benjamin | 4 | "If I Ain't Got You" | 8 | "Maybe" | Safe |
For the first time in the series, there was no bottom two. The act with the fewest votes was eliminated.

#### Show 7: Semi-final (4 June 2006)

Contestants' performances on the seventh live show :
| Act | Order | First Song | Order | Second song | Result |
| Chris Moyles | 1 | "Hard To Handle" | 4 | "Wonderwall" | Eliminated |
| Lucy Benjamin | 2 | "That Ole Devil Called Love" | 5 | "Torn" | Safe |
| Matt Stevens | 3 | "I Got A Woman" | 6 | "She's The One" | Safe |
For the second time in the series, there was no bottom two. The act with the fewest votes was eliminated.

#### Show 8: Final (5 June 2006)

All the contestants appeared to perform "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing" and Shayne Ward performed "Stand by Me".
| Act | Order | First song | Order | Second song | Result |
| Matt Stevens | 1 | "Theme from New York, New York" | 3 | "Mack The Knife" | Runner-Up |
| Lucy Benjamin | 2 | "Last Dance" | 4 | "See The Day" | Winner |

## Reception
### Ratings

All ratings are taken from the UK Programme Ratings website, BARB.
| Episode | Air date | Official rating (millions) | Weekly rank for all UK TV channels |
| Live show 1 | 29 May | 5.79 | 24 |
| Live show 2 | 30 May | 4.42 | 40 |
| Live show 3 | 31 May | 6.07 | 21 |
| Live show 4 | 1 June | 5.89 | 23 |
| Live show 5 | 2 June | 5.57 | 28 |
| Live quarter-final | 3 June | 5.35 | 31 |
| Live semi-final | 4 June | 6.31 | 19 |
| Live final | 5 June | 6.62 | 14 |
| Series average | 2006 | 5.75 | — |

## Axing and revival

It was reported on 26 August 2006 that Cowell had axed the show, describing it as "pointless" and adding "we are never going to do it again." However, Cowell later stated in an interview with The Sun on 30 November 2018 that he would consider reviving the show for a second series as a charity special.
The show's format was reported to return in 2019, along with a separate series for former contestants with a similar format, as the regular series is being put on hiatus due to declining ratings. On 7 July 2019, Walsh spoke about the return of the series, stating, "I go to Los Angeles on Tuesday, I go to Simon's house in Malibu, it's me Simon and Nicole [Scherzinger] and we're doing the celebrity one."