The X Factor UK (Series 15)

The X Factor UK (Series 15)
Series	15
Broadcast from	September 1, 2018 - December 2, 2018
Judges	Robbie Williams Ayda Field Louis Tomlinson Simon Cowell Nile Rodgers (guest)
Presenters	Dermot O'Leary Becca Dudley (Xtra Bites UK) Tinea Taylor (Xtra Bites UK)
Network	ITV ITV Hub (Xtra Bites UK)
Number of finalists	16
Winner	Dalton Harris
Runner-up	Scarlett Lee
Notable returnees	Tom Richards (7) Anthony Russell (4, 14) Scarlett Lee (14)
Chronology
Previous	Series 14
Next	The X Factor: Celebrity

Series 15 of The X Factor premiered on ITV on September 1, 2018 and concluded on December 2, 2018.

It was won by 24-year old Jamaican singer Dalton Harris who was part of the Boys category mentored by Louis Tomlinson.  His victory made him the first-ever foreign act to win the original series.

Production

On 1 January 2017, rumors spreaded via Twitter, a fifteenth series of the show would be happening in 2018. On 23 January 2017, Simon Cowell had confirmed Series 15, and stated it would be 'more thrilling than Series 14'. In October 2017, during the fourteenth series, Louis Walsh revealed that he and Sharon Osbourne had already signed for another year as judges and they would return for the fifteenth series. However, in June 2018 Walsh released a statement confirming his departure. It was also revealed that Osbourne would only be present for the live shows.

It was also rumoured that Cheryl, after making her comeback at Simon's judges houses, would return to the show as a fulltime judge replacing Sharon Osbourne. Speaking about the latter possibly not returning, Louis Walsh said in an interview that he would like to see Mel B or Mika, who assisted him at Judges' Houses during the 2017 series, join the panel.  However, in an interview with OK! Magazine Nicole Scherzinger confirmed that producers had asked her to return.

In a December 2017 interview with entertainment website Digital Spy, Alesha Dixon, who filled in for judges Nicole Scherzinger and Sharon Osbourne in audition stages and Simon Cowell during the live shows during Series 14, stated her uncertainty about being asked to participate in the 2018 series since she is committed to Britain's Got Talent. In April 2018, it was revealed by the Sun, that Nicole had been axed from the show and even though their contracts had been renewed, it was also revealed that the producers were also thinking of getting rid of Sharon and Louis too. Possible replacements that have been touted, would include; Cheryl, Alesha Dixon, Mariah Carey and Kylie Minogue for Nicole and Sharon and Louis Tomlinson or Craig David for Louis' replacement.

On 1 April 2018, it was confirmed that Nicole Scherzinger would not return for this series.  In June 2018, it was announced that Louis Walsh will not return for this series, marking his second time that he would not be present on the final judging panel.

On July 17, 2018, it was confirmed that Robbie Williams, Ayda Field, Louis Tomlinson and Simon Cowell were to be the judges for this season.

As Robbie Williams would be absent for three weekends of the live shows, it was announced that Chic co-founder Nile Rodgers, who assisted Louis Tomlinson at Judges' Houses, would be taking his place on the judging panel, beginning with the results show on November 4. Williams will return to the show for the weekend of November 24.

Judges

Robbie Williams	Ayda Field	Louis Tomlinson	Simon Cowell

Twists/Changes

Male-Dominated Four-Member Permanent Judging Panel: This is the only series to feature a four-member permanent judging panel with three permanent male judges and one permanent female judge, rather than the traditional four-member permanent judging panel with two male permanent and two female permanent judges.

Auditions: The room auditions were scrapped once more in favour of the arena auditions, which were held in London.

Bootcamp: This has been scrapped with a deliberation stage being introduced to cut down the yeses from the auditions to perform at the Six Chair Challenge.

Category Change: The maximum age for both the Boys and Girls categories was 28 years old which meant that the Overs category became the Over 28s.

Six Chair Challenge: In a change to previous years, a golden buzzer was introduced with an 'X' on it, meaning that when it is pressed that act is guaranteed a 'Safe Seat', which indicates that the category's judge cannot remove them from the seat and therefore they are put through to Judges' Houses.

Judges' Houses: It was announced that four acts will be taken through to the live shows. This previously happened in 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2014.

No Wildcard: Due to the judges taking four acts through to the live shows, there was no wildcard for the first time since Series 10.

Live Shows: In a change to the format from 2004 to 2017, there was due five judges with Sharon Osbourne acting as an impartial judge. However, on September 30, it was announced that Osbourne will no longer be taking part in the show.

Results Show: After the sing-off was scrapped for Series 14 in favour of a 'prize fight', the latter has been scrapped in order to return to the bottom three, introduced in Series 11, with the lowest-voted act being automatically eliminated and the next two lowest-voted facing the sing-off.

Live Final: In a change to the format that has existed since Series 6, all three finalists advanced to the second night of the show and the third-place finisher was not eliminated unlike previous years. This first happened in Series 4 in 2007.

Finalists

Act		Category	Finish	Elimination
	Olatunji Yearwood 32, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago	Over 29s	16th week one	Fewest public votes
	Armstrong Martins 23, Lagos, Nigeria/London	Boys	15th week one	Majority vote
	Janice Robinson 50, Galveston, Texas, United States	Over 29s	14th week two	Fewest public votes
	LMA Choir 19-40, Liverpool	Groups	13th week two	Deadlock
	United Vibe 17-20, various places	Groups	12th week three	Fewest public votes
	Molly Scott 16, County Durham	Girls	11th week three	Majority vote
	Misunderstood 25-27, London	Groups	10th week four	Fewest public votes
	Giovanni Spano 33, West London	Over 29s	9th week four	Majority vote
X Factor 2019 Live Tour
	Bella Penfold 19, Essex	Girls	8th quarter-final	Fewest public votes
	Shan Ako 25, Croydon	Girls	7th quarter-final	Deadlock
	Danny Tetley 36, Wigan	Over 29s	6th semi-final	Fewest public votes
	Brendan Murray 21, Tuam, Ireland	Boys	5th semi-final	Fewest public votes
	Acacia & Aaliyah 14 and 15, Leyland	Groups	4th semi-final	Majority vote
	Anthony Russell 28, Bootle	Boys	3rd final	Fewest public votes
	Scarlett Lee 21, Surrey	Girls	Runner up final	Fewest public votes
	Dalton Harris 24, Clarendon Parish, Jamaica	Boys	Winner final	Most public votes

Selection Process

Auditions

See: List of The X Factor UK auditionees (series 15)
The auditions began on July 18, 2018 and for the first time they were all held exclusively in the SSE Arena Wembley, with the room auditions having been cut. Unlike the previous season, the Bootcamp stage of the competition was axed, meaning auditionees who got through would instead be sent through to a deciding stage, that would take place over two days before the Six Chair Challenge.

Returnees for this year included Anthony Russell who auditioned for the show in 2007, being eliminated at Bootcamp, and in 2017, successfully reaching the Judges' Houses stage before withdrawing due to personal reasons and Scarlett Lee who auditioned in 2017 and made it to Sharon Osbourne's Six Chair Challenge, but was eliminated after failing to impress in a sing-off with Rai-Elle Williams and Alisah Bonaobra. Tom Richards previously auditioned during Series 7 in 2010 and made it to Judges' Houses in the Boys category mentored by Dannii Minogue but was not selected for the live shows.

Six Chair Challenge

See: Six Chair Challenge (UK series 15)
This took place from August 1st to 3rd at the SSE Arena, Wembley. The act who received the Golden Buzzer is highlighted in gold:

Summary of six chair challenge

Judge	Category	Chairs
		1	2	3	4	5	6
Field	Over 29s	Olatunji Yearwood	Janice Robinson	Ricky John	Louise Setara	Giovanni Spano	Danny Tetley
Cowell	Girls	Bella Penfold	Shanice Smith	Maria Laroco	Scarlett Lee	Georgia Burgess	Molly Scott
Tomlinson	Boys	Brendan Murray	Dalton Harris	Anthony Russell	JSOL	Thomas Pound	Armstrong Martins
Williams	Groups	VibeFive	Misunderstood	Sweet Scents	LMA Choir	Acacia & Aaliyah	Panda and Burgundy

Judges Houses

See: Judges' Houses (UK series 15)

Summary of judges' houses

Judge	Category	Location	Guest mentor(s)	Contestants eliminated
Cowell	Girls	Malibu, CA	Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson, Ryan Seacrest, Diane Warren, Babyface, Michelle Visage, Adam Lambert, Leona Lewis, Sinitta, Paul Anka, Tricky Stewart & Dallas Austin	Maria Laroco, Georgia Burgess
Field	Over 29s	Los Angeles, CA	Adam Lambert & Leona Lewis	Ricky John, Louise Setara
Tomlinson	Boys	Ibiza	Liam Payne & Nile Rogers	J-Sol, Thomas Pound
Williams	Groups	Beverly Hills, CA	David Walliams	Panda and Burgandy, Sweet Sense

Live Shows

Results Summary

Weekly results per act
Week		1		2		3		4		Quarter-Final		Semi-Final			Final
Eliminated
	Dalton Harris	3rd 9.3%		1st 15.5%	2nd 15.2%	1st 15.9%		2nd 17.3%	2nd 17.8%	1st 23.8%	1st 22.8%	1st 26.9%		1st 31.4%	Winner 41.3% (final)
	Scarlett Lee	6th 7.4%		5th 6.8%	4th 7.2%	3rd 9.5%		4th 8.9%	4th 9.3%	5th 9.4%	4th 11.3%	2nd 19.1%		3rd 22.3%	Runner-Up 31.3% (final)
	Anthony Russell	1st 11.5%		2nd 15.4%	1st 15.6%	2nd 14.8%		1st 18.6%	1st 18.8%	2nd 19.0%	2nd 19.9%	3rd 18.9%		2nd 23.5%	3rd 27.4% (final)
	Acacia & Aaliyah	9th 6.2%		6th 6.6%	7th 6.8%	10th 6.5%		9th 7.0%	8th 8.0%	6th 8.9%	6th 9.8%	4th 12.3%		4th 14.7%	Eliminated (semi-final)
	Brendan Murray	10th 4.9%		12th 4.7%	12th 4.8%	9th 6.6%		5th 8.6%	5th 8.8%	4th 9.5%	5th 10.5%	5th 11.9%		Eliminated (semi-final)
	Danny Tetley	8th 6.8%		7th 6.3%	6th 6.8%	7th 7.2%		7th 7.8%	7th 8.1%	3rd 12.8%	3rd 12.6%	6th 10.9%
	Shan Ako	2nd 10.0%		3rd 7.9%	3rd 7.9%	4th 9.2%		3rd 9.6%	3rd 9.8%	7th 8.5%	7th 8.9%	Eliminated (quarter-final)
	Bella Penfold	4th 8.5%		9th 5.3%	9th 5.6%	6th 7.2%		6th 8.1%	6th 8.5%	8th 8.1%	Eliminated (quarter-final)
	Giovanni Spano	13th 3.4%		10th 4.9%	10th 5.0%	5th 7.8%		8th 7.2%	9th 7.3%	Eliminated (week 4)
	Misunderstood	5th 8.0%		4th 6.8%	5th 7.2%	8th 7.0%		10th 6.9%	Eliminated (week 4)
	Molly Scott	7th 7.2%		8th 5.6%	8th 5.9%	11th 4.5%		Eliminated (week 3)
	United Vibe	12th 4.5%		11th 4.9%	11th 4.8%	12th 3.8%
	LMA Choir	11th 4.8%		13th 4.7%	13th 4.5%	Eliminated (week 2)
	Janice Robinson	14th 3.2%		14th 4.6%	Eliminated (week 2)
	Armstrong Martins	15th 2.4%		Eliminated (week 1)
	Olatunji Yearwoood	16th 1.9%
Sing-Off		Martins, Robinson		No sing-off; results were based on public votes alone	LMA Choir, Murray	Acacia & Aaliyah, Scott		No sing-off; results were based on public votes alone	Acacia & Aaliyah, Spano	No sing-off; results were based on public votes alone	Acacia & Aaliyah, Ako	No sing-off; results were based on public votes alone		Acacia & Aaliyah, Lee	No sing-off; results were based on public votes alone
Rodgers' vote to eliminate		N/A			N/A	Scott			Spano		Ako			N/A
Williams' vote to eliminate		Martins			Murray	N/A			N/A		N/A			Lee
Field's vote to eliminate		Martins			LMA Choir	Scott			Acacia & Aaliyah		Ako			Acacia & Aaliyah
Tomlinson's vote to eliminate		Robinson			LMA Choir	Scott			Spano		Acacia & Aaliyah			Acacia & Aaliyah
Cowell's vote to eliminate		Martins			Murray	Acacia & Aaliyah			Spano		Acacia & Aaliyah			Acacia & Aaliyah
Eliminated		Olatunji Yearwood 1.9% To Save	Armstrong Martins 3 of 4 Votes Majority Vote	Janice Robinson 4.6% To Save	LMA Choir 2 of 4 Votes Deadlock	United Vibe 3.8% To Save	Molly Scott 3 of 4 Votes Majority Vote	Misunderstood 6.9% To Save	Giovanni Spano 3 of 4 Votes Majority Vote	Bella Penfold 8.1% To Save	Shan Ako 2 of 4 Votes Deadlock	Danny Tetley 10.9% To Save	Brendan Murray 11.9% To Save	Acacia & Aaliyah 3 of 4 Votes Majority Vote	Anthony Russell 27.4% To Win	Scarlett Lee 31.3% To Win

Controversies

Felix Sheperd

During the audition stages, a 20-year old transgender man named Felix Sheperd performed "All I Want" by Kodaline, impressing the judges and receiving a standing ovation from the audience.  Before his performance, Robbie Williams asked him about his background and dead-named him.  Although many fans were supportive of Sheperd's decision, others were outraged about Williams' actions.

Sharon Osbourne

In an interview on The Howard Stern Show, Osbourne went on an expletive-laden rant about Simon Cowell's treatment of her and what she would do to him in return.  This led to fans demanding her replacement on the show, where she had only been due to replace Robbie Williams for the live shows due to his busy tour schedule. On September 30, she confirmed that she would no longer be taking part in the show.

Technical issues

The third live show saw technical issues where the judges and acts Danny Tetley and Anthony Russell sounded distorted. An onscreen message apologised for the disruption and as a result it was decided to open the voting lines the following evening during the results show. Presenter Dermot O'Leary did not address the matter during latter since the Saturday show had been prerecorded due to Robbie Williams' absence.

Team Rankings

1. Boys (mentored by Louis Tomlinson)

2. Girls (mentored by Simon Cowell)

3. Groups (mentored by Robbie Williams)

4. Over 29s (mentored by Ayda Field)

Trivia

• This is the second series where the eliminated acts finished last in the public vote.
• This is the third series where only one judge sent the result to deadlock.
• This is the only series where the judge with the deciding vote who sent the result to deadlock voted to eliminate the act who was eventually eliminated.