| The X Factor UK (Series 1) | |
|---|---|
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| Series | 1 |
| Broadcast from | 4 September 2004 – 11 December 2004 |
| Judges | Louis Walsh Sharon Osbourne Simon Cowell |
| Presenters | Kate Thornton Ben Shephard |
| Network | ITV ITV2 |
| Number of finalists | 9 |
| Winner | Steve Brookstein |
| Runner-up | G4 |
| Notable returnees | 4Tune (2), Chenai Zinyuku (2) |
| Ratings | 7.4 million |
| Chronology | |
| Next | Series 2 |
The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent; the winner of which receives a £1 million recording contract with the Syco Music record label. The first series was broadcast from 4 September to 11 December 2004. The competition was split into several stages: auditions, bootcamp, judges' houses, and live shows, with Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne and Simon Cowell as judges. Kate Thornton presented the show on ITV, whilst Ben Shephard presented spin-off show The Xtra Factor on ITV2.
Auditions were held in Dublin, Newcastle, London, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow.
The series was won by Steve Brookstein, with Cowell as the winning mentor. Brookstein went on to have minor chart success, with runners-up G4 achieving two platinum albums before splitting up in 2007.
The judging panel consisted of Irish music manager Louis Walsh, music manager and television personality Sharon Osbourne and label head Simon Cowell, who conceived the idea to create a new talent show with a broader range of auditionees to its predecessor Pop Idol.
Kate Thornton presented the show on ITV, whilst Ben Shephard presented spin-off show The Xtra Factor on ITV2.
Production[]
Judges[]
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| Louis Walsh | Sharon Osbourne | Simon Cowell |
Twists/Changes[]
Auditions: The audition age for this series was 16 and older and unlike its predecessor, groups could also audition. Auditions were held in Dublin, Newcastle, London, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow.
Live Shows: In Week 6, each act performed twice in the first show (with the judges offering their opinions after the second songs), and reprised one of their songs in the results show. The act with the fewest public votes was eliminated at the end of the second show, with the judges no longer having a say in who left.
Finalists[]
| Act | Category | Finish | Elimination | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The X Factor 2005 Live Tour | ||||
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Roberta Howett 23, Dublin, Ireland |
16-24s | 9th week one |
Majority vote |
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Verity Keays 51, Grimsby, Lincolnshire |
Over 25s | 8th week two |
Majority vote |
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2 to Go 23-24, Notts |
Groups | 7th week three |
Majority vote |
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Voices with Soul 25-42, Luton |
Groups | 6th week four |
Majority vote |
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Cassie Compton 17, North London |
16-24s | 5th week five |
Majority vote |
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Rowetta Satchell 38, Manchester |
Over 25s | 4th quarter-final |
Fewest public votes |
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Tabby Callaghan 23, Sligo, Ireland |
16-24s | 3rd semi-final |
Fewest public votes |
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G4 22-24, London |
Groups | Runner-up final |
Fewest public votes |
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Steve Brookstein 35, London |
Over 25s | Winner final |
Most public votes |
Selection process[]
Auditions[]
See: List of The X Factor UK auditionees (series 1)
Prior to the audition phase, advertisements appeared on ITV, in newspapers, and trade magazines, promising that the new show would encourage groups, and while the emphasis was on singing, would welcome those who played instruments and wrote their own songs. Thus the show would differentiate itself from its predecessor, Pop Idol.
Auditions were held in Dublin, Newcastle, London, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow.
Bootcamp[]
After the initial auditions, each judge was randomly allocated a category:
- Simon Cowell: Over 25s
- Sharon Osbourne: 16-24s
- Louis Walsh: Groups
Each judge chose twelve acts from their category to go through to round two of bootcamp. After bootcamp, each judge selected five acts to progress to "judges' homes".
Judges' Houses[]
See: Judges' Houses (UK series 1)
| Judge | Category | Location | Guest mentor(s) | Contestants eliminated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cowell | Over 25s | London | Annie Skates, Sinitta | Lloyd Wade, Odis Palmer |
| Osbourne | 16-24s | Buckinghamshire | Mark Hudson, Terry Longden, Jack Osbourne | Andy Steed, Megan Ramsay |
| Walsh | Groups | Dublin | Linda Martin, Faye Sawyer, David Laudat | 4Tune, Advance |
Live Shows[]
Results Summary[]
| Weekly results per act | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Week | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Quarter-Final | Semi-Final | Final | |||||||||
| Eliminated | 
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| Steve Brookstein | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Winner (final) | |||||||||
| G4 | Safe | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | Safe | Safe | Safe | Runner-Up (final) | |||||||||
| Tabby Callaghan | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | Safe | 3rd | Eliminated (semi-final) | |||||||||
| Rowetta Satchell | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | 4th | Eliminated (quarter-final) | ||||||||||
| Cassie Compton | Safe | Safe | Safe | Safe | Bottom Two | Eliminated (week 5) | |||||||||||
| Voices with Soul | Bottom Two | Safe | Bottom Two | Bottom Two | Eliminated (week 4) | ||||||||||||
| 2 to Go | Safe | Bottom Two | Bottom Two | Eliminated (week 3) | |||||||||||||
| Verity Keays | Safe | Bottom Two | Eliminated (week 2) | ||||||||||||||
| Roberta Howett | Bottom Two | Eliminated (week 1) | |||||||||||||||
| Final Showdown | Howett, Voices with Soul |
2 to Go, Keays |
2 to Go, Voices with Soul |
G4, Voices with Soul |
Callaghan, Compton |
No final showdown or judges' votes; results were based on public votes alone | |||||||||||
| Walsh's vote to eliminate |
Howett | Keays | 2 to Go | Voices with Soul | Compton | ||||||||||||
| Osbourne's vote to eliminate |
Voices with Soul | Keays | 2 to Go | Voices with Soul | None (abstained) | ||||||||||||
| Cowell's vote to eliminate |
Howett | 2 to Go | N/A* | G4 | Compton | ||||||||||||
| Eliminated | Roberta Howett (2 of 3) Majority Vote |
Verity Keays (2 of 3) Majority Votes |
2 to Go (2 of 2) Majority Vote |
Voices with Soul (2 of 3) Majority Vote |
Cassie Compton (2 of 3) Majority Vote |
Rowetta Satchell Public Vote To Save |
Tabby Callaghan Public Vote To Save |
G4 Public Vote To Win | |||||||||
- In Week 3, Cowell did not need to vote as there was already a majority.
Live show details[]
Week 1 (23 October)[]
| Act | Category | Order | Song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voices with Soul | Walsh (Groups) | 1 | "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" | Bottom two |
| Verity Keays | Cowell (Over 25s) | 2 | "I Will Always Love You" | Safe |
| Roberta Howett | Osbourne (16-24s) | 3 | "Superstar" | Eliminated |
| 2 to Go | Walsh (Groups) | 4 | "Don't Know Much" | Safe |
| Steve Brookstein | Cowell (Over 25s) | 5 | "When a Man Loves a Woman" | Safe |
| Cassie Compton | Osbourne (16-24s) | 6 | "Alfie" | Safe |
| G4 | Walsh (Groups) | 7 | "Everybody Hurts" | Safe |
| Rowetta Satchell | Cowell (Over 25s) | 8 | "You Don't Have to Say You Love Me" | Safe |
| Tabby Callaghan | Osbourne (16-24s) | 9 | "You Really Got Me" | Safe |
Judges' votes to eliminate
- Walsh: Roberta Howett – backed his own act, Voices with Soul.
- Osbourne: Voices with Soul – backed her own act, Roberta Howett.
- Cowell: Roberta Howett – based on the final showdown performance, but felt that neither act deserved to be in the bottom two.
Week 2 (30 October)[]
| Act | Order | Song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rowetta Satchell | 1 | "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" | Safe |
| 2 to Go | 2 | "Always" | Bottom two |
| Cassie Compton | 3 | "Without You" | Safe |
| Verity Keays | 4 | "Wind Beneath My Wings" | Eliminated |
| G4 | 5 | "Don't Look Back in Anger" | Safe |
| Tabby Callaghan | 6 | "My Oh My" | Safe |
| Steve Brookstein | 7 | "If You Don't Know Me by Now" | Safe |
| Voices with Soul | 8 | "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman" | Safe |
Judges' votes to eliminate:
- Walsh: Verity Keays – backed his own act, 2 to Go.
- Cowell: 2 to Go – backed his own act, Verity Keays.
- Osbourne: Verity Keays – gave no reason.
Week 3 (6 November)[]
| Act | Order | Song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tabby Callaghan | 1 | "Addicted to Love" | Safe |
| Voices with Soul | 2 | "Bridge Over Troubled Water" | Bottom two |
| Steve Brookstein | 3 | "Smile" | Safe |
| 2 to Go | 4 | "(I've Had) The Time of My Life" | Eliminated |
| Cassie Compton | 5 | "I Say a Little Prayer" | Safe |
| Rowetta Satchell | 6 | "Over the Rainbow" | Safe |
| G4 | 7 | "...Baby One More Time" | Safe |
Judges' votes to eliminate:
- Osbourne: 2 to Go – gave no reason.
- Walsh: 2 to Go – said he did not want to send either of his acts home. He asked to vote last but Thornton pressed him for his decision.
- Cowell was not required to vote as there was already a majority.
Week 4 (13 November)[]
| Act | Order | Song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| G4 | 1 | "Circle of Life" | Bottom two |
| Rowetta Satchell | 2 | "MacArthur Park" | Safe |
| Tabby Callaghan | 3 | "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" | Safe |
| Voices With Soul | 4 | "Lady Marmalade" | Eliminated |
| Cassie Compton | 5 | "Hero" | Safe |
| Steve Brookstein | 6 | "Help Me Make It Through the Night" | Safe |
Judges' votes to eliminate:
- Osbourne: Voices with Soul – based on the final showdown performance, and believed that G4 had a future in a recording career.
- Cowell: G4 – gave no reason.
- Walsh: Voices with Soul – said he did not want to send either of his acts home, saying the result was worse than last week; he tried to back out but Thornton forced him for his decision.
Week 5 (20 November)[]
| Act | Order | Song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steve Brookstein | 1 | "Let's Stay Together" | Safe |
| Cassie Compton | 2 | "All by Myself" | Eliminated |
| G4 | 3 | "My Way" | Safe |
| Tabby Callaghan | 4 | "Sweet Child o' Mine" | Bottom two |
| Rowetta Satchell | 5 | "Somewhere" | Safe |
Judges' votes to eliminate:
- Walsh: Cassie Compton – believed Callaghan could win the competition.
- Osbourne abstained from voting as both acts were in her category. Thornton tried to remind her of her duty to vote between her acts as Walsh did in the previous two results shows, but Osbourne still refused to send home either of her acts, citing her loyalty to both of them. Following this, Thornton told Cowell that if he chose to send home Callaghan, the result would to deadlock where the public vote to decide who would be eliminated.
- Cowell: Cassie Compton – wanted to win the competition and believed Callaghan was his biggest threat but after deliberating on whether to send home either Callaghan or Compton, who he felt was the weakest, opted to send Compton home.
Week 6: Quarter-Final (27 November)[]
| Act | Order | First song | Order | Second song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rowetta Satchell | 1 | "River Deep - Mountain High" | 5 | "When You Tell Me That You Love Me" | Eliminated |
| G4 | 2 | "You'll Never Walk Alone" | 6 | "Somebody to Love" | Safe |
| Steve Brookstein | 3 | "I Get the Sweetest Feeling" | 7 | "If I Could Turn Back the Hands of Time" | Safe |
| Tabby Callaghan | 4 | "More Than Words" | 8 | "Livin' on a Prayer" | Safe |
The quarter-final did not feature a final showdown and instead the act with the fewest public votes, Rowetta Satchell, was automatically eliminated
Week 7: Semi-Final (4 December)[]
| Act | Order | First song | Order | Second song | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tabby Callaghan | 1 | "Pride (In the Name of Love)" | 4 | "Sailing" | Eliminated |
| Steve Brookstein | 2 | "Have I Told You Lately" | 5 | "Greatest Love of All" | Safe |
| G4 | 3 | "O Holy Night" | 6 | "Bohemian Rhapsody" | Safe |
The semi-final did not feature a final showdown and instead the act with the fewest public votes, Tabby Callaghan, was automatically eliminated.
Week 8: Final (11 December)[]
| Act | Order | First song | Order | Second song (song of the series) | Order | Third song (winner's single) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steve Brookstein | 1 | "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher" | 3 | "Smile" | 5 | "Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)" | Winner |
| G4 | 2 | "Nessun Dorma" | 4 | "Bohemian Rhapsody" | 6 | "Creep" | Runner-up |
Ratings[]
This series achieved an average of 7.4 million viewers per episode. The lowest of and The X Factor UK series so far
| Episode | Air date | Official ITV1 rating (millions) | Weekly rank (millions) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Auditions 1 | 4 September | 5.25 | 21 |
| Auditions 2 | 11 September | 6.53 | 17 |
| Auditions 3 | 18 September | 7.08 | 14 |
| Auditions 4 | 25 September | 7.24 | 16 |
| Auditions 5 | 2 October | 6.71 | 18 |
| Bootcamp 1 | 9 October | 6.69 | 21 |
| Bootcamp 2 | 7.89 | 17 | |
| Judges' houses | 16 October | 7.32 | 17 |
| Live show 1 | 23 October | 7.18 | 17 |
| Live results 1 | 7.83 | 15 | |
| Live show 2 | 30 October | 6.53 | 20 |
| Live results 2 | 7.26 | 17 | |
| Live show 3 | 6 November | 6.89 | 19 |
| Live results 3 | 7.02 | 18 | |
| Live show 4 | 13 November | 7.42 | 15 |
| Live results 4 | 6.88 | 18 | |
| Live show 5 | 20 November | 7.91 | 16 |
| Live results 5 | 7.98 | 14 | |
| Live show 6 | 27 November | 8.06 | 22 |
| Live results 6 | 8.01 | 23 | |
| Live semi-final | 4 December | 7.79 | 20 |
| Live results 7 | 7.52 | 23 | |
| Final | 11 December | 8.62 | 15 |
| Final results | 9.96 | 8 |
Controversies[]
It was reported in tabloid newspapers that the show's audition process was unfair after Walsh was accused of cheating. He was thought to have advised the group Co-Ed on things such as song choices, which caused controversy after it was revealed that he had actually previously managed Co-Ed after they appeared on the Irish version of Popstars in 2001. Around the same time, footage of Cowell and Osbourne coaching contestants to argue back to the judges was being auctioned over the Internet.
Prior to the first live show, Osbourne accused Cowell of "rigging" the show by editing footage to make the contestants in his category more appealing to viewers. Osbourne attracted criticism again following the final in December 2004 when she was forced to make an apology after attracting what Cowell referred to as "record complaints" over an outburst by Osbourne in which she criticised eventual winner Steve Brookstein. This left her place on the show uncertain, although she returned for the second series in 2005.
Despite finishing as runners-up, G4 have since referred to The X Factor as "just panto".
Team Rankings:[]
1.Over 25s (mentored by Simon Cowell)
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2.Groups (mentored by Louis Walsh)
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3.16-24s (mentored by Sharon Osbourne)
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Trivia[]
- Both the winning act and runner-up performed different potential winner's singles. This would not happen again until the 2010 UK series.
- This was the only series to include nine acts in the live shows (excluding X Factor: Battle Of The Stars)
- All three judges had their last surviving act in the final three.
- This is the only series where every single act on the live shows performed on The X Factor Live Tour.
- This is the first series to feature a judging panel where all three judges were born in the 1950s.
| The X Factor UK |
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