The X Factor: Lashardia

**Original release** | 10 December 2014 – present

***The X Factor: Lashardia*** is a Lashardian music reality television competition show broadcast on LRT, beginning in 2014. Based on the *The X Factor* franchise the series found new singing talent (solo artists and groups ages 16 and over), drawn from public auditions, and they competed against each other for votes. The winner was determined by the show's viewers via telephone, the Internet, and SMS text voting, and was awarded a recording contract with Akai Music Group, worth $5 million. The three winners so far are Olga Davorcha, Electric Winter, and Lena Filipömarks.

The show began airing on 10 December 2014, and has aired annually from December through March. The series employs a panel of judges who critique the contestants' performances. Each contestant is assigned to one of four categories. The group acts are one category and the others are based on age and gender. Since season one, the categories have been boys, girls, over 30s, and groups. Each judge is assigned to one of the categories, and acts as a mentor to the contestants in his or her category, helping to decide song choices, styling, and staging, while also judging contestants from the other categories after each of the live performances. They compete with each other to try to get one of the contestants in their category to win the competition, thus making them the winning judge.

The original judging panel consisted of Pal Nigtöfoor, Darya Shashinöbach, Sabine Bursöhurt, and Zaras Abdulöfarwa, while Katia Ninömeyer hosted the show. Ebona Jonölark joined the show in the second season as Bursöhurt's replacement. Jonölark left before season three and was replaced by Sabina Tomötimosen. Tomötimosen and Shashinöbach departed following season three and will be replaced by Malisa and Olia Janisöpfleg.

## Format

### Categories

The show is primarily concerned with identifying singing talent, though appearance, personality, stage presence, and dance routines are also an important element of many performances. Each judge is assigned one of four categories. These categories are: "Boys" (aged 16–29 males; 16–25 males after season two), "Girls" (aged 16–29 females; 16–25 females after season two), "Over 30s"/"Over 25s" (solo acts aged 30 and over; aged 25 and over after season two), and "Groups" (including duos). Some groups were formed from soloists and other groups rejected after the audition process. Through the live shows, the judges act as mentors to their category, helping to decide song choices, styling and staging, while judging contestants from other categories.

### Stages

There are six stages (five prior to season three) to the competition:

* Stage 1: Producers' auditions (these auditions decide who will sing in front of the judges)
* Stage 2: Judges' auditions
* Stage 3: Boot camp
* Stage 4: *The Six Chair Challenge* (season three onwards)
* Stage 5: Judges' houses
* Stage 6: Live shows (finals)

### Auditions

The show is open to solo artists and vocal groups aged 16 and above, with no upper age limit. Applicants are given an opportunity to apply by uploading a video audition to the Internet. The show's producers also send a "mobile audition van" to various locations throughout Lashardia to audition singers who are unable to attend the arena auditions. A round of first auditions is held in front of producers months before the show is aired, some by application and appointment, and others in "open" auditions that anyone can attend. These auditions, held at various venues around the country, attract very large crowds. The producers' auditions are not televised, but shots of crowds waving and "judges' cars" arriving are filmed and later spliced in with the televised auditions shot later in the year. After waiting at the venue for hours (during which crews film more shots of crowds screaming and waving), each candidate is given a brief audition by someone from the production team. If they pass that audition (either because of their talent or because the producers think they will make entertaining television), they are given a "golden ticket" that allows them to audition for a more senior member of the production team. Only candidates who successfully pass this second audition (and then a third along similar lines) are invited to perform in front of the judges. (The televised version misleadingly gives the impression that everyone in the huge crowds shown is waiting for a chance to perform for the judges.)

A selection of the auditions in front of the judges – usually the best, the worst and the most bizarre – are broadcast during the first few weeks of the show. The judges' auditions are held in front of a live audience, and the acts sing over a backing track. If at least two of the four judges say "yes", then the act goes through to the next stage, otherwise they are sent home.

### Boot camp, *The Six Chair Challenge*, and judges' houses

The contestants selected at the auditions are further refined through a series of performances at "boot camp", and then at the "judges' houses", until an amount of acts (20 in season one, 16 in subsequent seasons) eventually progress to the live finals.

In seasons one and two, at boot camp, the judges collaboratively choose thirty-two acts for the next round, "judges' houses". However, as of seasons three, the final rounds of bootcamp were replaced with *The Six Chair Challenge*. Ten acts in each category advance from bootcamp to *The Six Chair Challenge*. Each judge has six chairs to fill which represent the acts advancing to the judges' houses. After an act performs, the judge can either assign them to a chair or eliminate them immediately. Once all six chairs are filled, judges can replace already seated acts with acts that have just performed, sending the seated acts home. Following the round's completion, the six acts with chairs advance to the judges' houses. Normally, a wildcard for each category sent home during *The Six Chair Challenge* is brought back for the judges' houses.

Prior to season three, the producers assign each of the judges a category to mentor shortly before the judges' houses. However, from season three on the judges find out which category they're mentoring prior to *The Six Chair Challenge*.

The judges split up for the "judges' houses" round, in which each of them hosted the contestants in their assigned category at a luxurious residence, often scattered around the globe. The houses the contestants visited did not in every case actually belong to the judges, some were rented for the occasion.

During this round, each judge held another round of auditions on location, and then further reduced the number of acts with the help of a celebrity guest.

### Live shows

The selected finalists (20 in season one, 16 in season two, 12 in subsequent seasons) move into shared accommodation in Ubenmoor to take part in the show.

The finals consist of a series of two live shows, the first featuring the contestants' performances and the second revealing the results of the public voting, culminating in one or more acts being eliminated. Celebrity guest performers also feature regularly. For seasons one and two, these live shows are filmed at LRT Studios in Tenichi, Ubenmoor. For season three and on, the live shows were filmed at Ubenmoor Arena in Jorden, Ubenmoor. The performance shows are broadcast on Wednesday nights and the results show on Thursday nights.

#### Performances

The show is primarily concerned with identifying a potential pop star or star group, and singing talent, appearance, personality, stage presence and dance routines are all important elements of the contestants' performances. In the initial live shows, each act performs once in the first show in front of a studio audience and the judges, usually singing over a pre-recorded backing track. Dancers are also commonly featured. Acts occasionally accompany themselves on guitar or piano. Each live show has had a different theme; each contestant's song is chosen according to the theme. After each act has performed, the judges comment on their performance. Heated disagreements, usually involving judges defending their contestants against criticism, are a regular feature of the show. Once all the acts have appeared, the phone lines open and the viewing public vote on which act they want to keep. Once the number of contestants has been reduced to six, each act would perform twice in the performances show. This continues until only three acts remain. These acts go on to appear in the grand final which decides the overall winner by public vote.

#### Results

Before the results are announced, the results show occasionally begins with a group performance from the remaining contestants. However, the song is pre-recorded and the contestants mime, due to problems with the number of microphones. In seasons one and two, two acts polling the fewest votes are revealed. Both these acts perform again in a "final showdown", and the judges vote on which of the two to send home. They were able to pick new songs to perform in the "final showdown". "Double elimination" took place in some of the results show, where the bottom three acts were revealed and the act with the fewest votes was automatically eliminated, and the two with the next fewest votes performed in the "final showdown" as normal.

For season three and on, the format largely remained the same, except for one detail. Instead of a bottom two, there was a bottom three each week. After the reveal of the bottom three, viewers at home had five minutes to vote to save one act in the bottom three from the final showdown. After the five minutes ends, the saved act is revealed and the remaining two compete in the final showdown.

Ties are possible as there are four judges voting on which of the two to send home. In the event of a tie the result goes to deadlock, and the act who came last in the public vote is sent home. The actual number of votes cast for each act is not revealed, nor even the order. Once the number of contestants has been reduced to four, the act which polled the fewest votes is automatically eliminated from the competition (the judges do not have a vote; their only role is to comment on the performances).

### After *The X Factor: Lashardia*

The winner of the competition is awarded a recording contract with Akai Music Group, which would include cash payments totaling $5 million. The costs of recording and marketing the winning artist will be paid for separately from the $5 million initial contract payment. The $5 million will be paid directly to the winner in ten annual installments of $500 thousand.

## Series overview

     Contestant in (or mentor of) "Boys" category

     Contestant in (or mentor of) "Girls" category

     Contestant in (or mentor of) "Over 30s" or "Over 25s" category

     Contestant in (or mentor of) "Groups" category

## Judges and host

### Judges

After the announcement of the show being picked up, numerous media outlets began speculating who would be the four celebrity judges. Some heavily rumored names included Era, Olia Janisöpfleg, and Katia Flaksöberg. The first judge to be announced was Lashardian music producer Pal Nigtöfoor. Later, record executive and CEO of Akai Music Group Zaras Abdulöfarwa was revealed to be on the judging panel. Finally, ex-Fallen Angels member Darya Shashinöbach and recording artist Sabine Bursöhurt were revealed as the final two judges.

Following the first season, Bursöhurt revealed she would leave the show in order to focus on her career. Singer-songwriter Ebona Jonölark was later revealed as her replacement. Jonölark left the show following season two to focus on her music career, and she was replaced by Sabina Tomötimosen. Following season three, both Tomötimosen and Shashinöbach departed from the show to focus on their careers. They will be replaced by Malisa and Olia Janisöpfleg for the upcoming fourth season.

Pal Nigtöfoor (2014–)Zaras Abdulöfarwa (2014–)Olia Janisöpfleg (2017–)Malisa (2017–)Darya Shashinöbach (2014–2016)Sabine Bursöhurt (2014)Ebona Jonölark (2015)Sabina Tomötimosen (2016)
### Host

Originally, it was announced that two hosts would present the show. Largely rumored possibilities were Katia Ninömeyer, Lina Leftöhamm, Alek Orinösampsen, and Oliver Jemösan. It was later revealed that the show would only have one host. Ninömeyer was later announced to be hosting the show.

Katia Ninömeyer (2014–)
### Judges categories and their finalists

In each season, each judge is allocated a category to mentor and chooses a number of acts (5 in season one, 4 in subsequent seasons) to progress to the live finals. This table shows, for each season, which category each judge was allocated and which acts he or she put through to the live finals.

**Key:**

     – Winning judge/category. Winners are in bold, non-finalists in small font.

 TBA