Claim: The X Factor is a music competition.

The X Factor is a British reality television music competition to find new singing talent . The contestants are aspiring singers drawn from public auditions . Created by Simon Cowell , the show began in 2004 and has since aired annually from August/September until December . The show is produced by FremantleMedia 's Thames -LRB- previously Talkback Thames -RRB- and Cowell 's production company Syco TV . It is broadcast on the ITV network in the UK and simulcast on TV3 in Ireland . `` X Factor '' refers to the undefinable `` something '' that makes for star quality . The series consists of auditions , bootcamp , judges ' houses , several weeks of live shows , semi-finals and the final . The series had a spin-off behind-the-scenes show called The Xtra Factor , which aired directly after the main show on ITV2 . This lasted from series 1 until series 13 when it was cancelled by ITV in January 2017 .   The original judging panel consisted of Louis Walsh , Sharon Osbourne and Cowell . In 2005 Paula Abdul joined the show as a guest judge whilst Osbourne was away then joined the panel in 2006 for three sets of auditions . Brian Friedman replaced Walsh in series 4 , which also saw Dannii Minogue join the panel . Friedman left during the auditions and Walsh replaced Friedman . Cheryl Cole replaced Osbourne in series 5 . Gary Barlow , Kelly Rowland and Tulisa joined the panel in series 8 as replacements for Cowell , Minogue , and Cole . Rowland left before series 9 and was replaced by Nicole Scherzinger . Osbourne returned to the panel in series 10 , replacing Tulisa . Cowell and Cole -LRB- now Fernandez-Versini -RRB- returned to replace Barlow and Osbourne in series 11 , while Mel B replaced Scherzinger . In series 12 , Mel B and Walsh were replaced by Rita Ora and Nick Grimshaw . In series 13 , Walsh , Osbourne and Scherzinger returned , replacing Grimshaw , Fernandez-Versini and Ora . The first three series were presented by Kate Thornton , then from the fourth to 11th series , the show was presented by Dermot O'Leary , he then returned from the 13th series . In series 12 , the show was presented by Caroline Flack and Olly Murs . Also , in series 10 , Flack served as a backstage presenter during the Saturday night live shows . Roman Kemp will begin serving as the digital presenter of the show in series 13 . The show is split into different stages , following the contestants from auditions through to the final . In the original televised audition stage of the show , contestants sang in an audition room in front of just the judges , but from the sixth series onwards , auditionees sing on a stage in front of the judges and a live audience . In series 10 and 11 , both auditions formats were used . In series 12 , the room auditions were scrapped , leaving just the arena auditions . The room auditions were revived in series 13 , and no arena auditions followed . Successful auditionees go through to `` bootcamp '' and then to `` judges ' houses '' , where judges narrow down the acts in their category down to three or four acts to mentor for the live shows , where the public vote for their favourite acts following weekly live performances by the contestants .   There have been 13 winners of the show to date : Steve Brookstein , Shayne Ward , Leona Lewis , Leon Jackson , Alexandra Burke , Joe McElderry , Matt Cardle , Little Mix , James Arthur , Sam Bailey , Ben Haenow , Louisa Johnson and Matt Terry . Winners receive a recording contract with record label Syco Music with a stated value of # 1 million . This includes a cash payment to the winner , but the majority is allocated to marketing and recording costs . From 2004 to 2010 , and again in 2013 and 2014 , the winning contestant 's single was released in time for the end-of-year chart battle for the UK 's Christmas number one , with all of them -LRB- bar McElderry in 2009 and Terry in 2016 -RRB- reaching the top spot . As of November 2016 , 41 number-one singles have been achieved by artists who have appeared on the show , such as Lewis , Burke , JLS , Olly Murs , Cher Lloyd , One Direction and Little Mix .   The show is the originator of the international The X Factor franchise . A prominent show in British popular culture , The X Factor has proved hugely popular with the public . The sixth series attracted 200,000 auditionees and peaked at 19.7 million UK viewers -LRB- a 63.2 % audience share -RRB- . More than 10 million votes were cast in the sixth series final .