The X Factor (American TV series)

The X Factor
Genre	Reality television
Created by	Simon Cowell (uncredited)
Showrunner	Simon Cowell
Creative directors	Brian Friedman Jamie King
Presented by	Steve Jones Mario Lopez Khloé Kardashian
Judges	Simon Cowell L.A. Reid Paula Abdul Nicole Scherzinger Britney Spears Demi Lovato Kelly Rowland Paulina Rubio
Composer	Simon Cowell
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	80
Production
Executive producers	Simon Cowell (uncredited) Cecile Frot-Coutaz Siobhan Greene Richard Holloway Andrew Llinares Rob Wade[1]
Production locations	Various (auditions) CBS Television City (live shows)
Running time	60–150 minutes
Production company	FremantleMedia North America Syco Entertainment
Original release
Network	Fox
Release	September 21, 2011 (2011-09-21) – December 19, 2013 (2013-12-19)
Related
The X Factor
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The X Factor, also known as The X Factor USA, is an American reality television music competition show created by Simon Cowell and produced by FremantleMedia North America and SYCOtv, a partnership between Cowell and Sony Music Entertainment, which aired on Fox.^[2] Based on the original British show, and an addition to The X Factor franchise, the series found new singing talent (solo artists and groups ages 12 and over), drawn from public auditions, and they competed against each other for votes. The winners were determined by the show's viewers via telephone, the Internet, and SMS text voting, and were awarded a recording contract with Cowell's record label Syco Music, worth $5 million in seasons one and two, and $1 million in season three. America voted for the following winners: Melanie Amaro, Tate Stevens, and Alex & Sierra, respectively.

The show began airing on September 21, 2011, through negative reviews,^[3] and aired annually from September through December. 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 or gender. For example, in season 1 the categories were girls, boys, groups, and over 30s. Each judge was assigned to one of the categories,^[4] and acted as a mentor to the contestants in his or her category, helping with song choices, styling, and staging, while also judging contestants from the other categories after each of the live performances. They competed 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 most successful act to emerge from the series is Fifth Harmony, with all members launching solo careers.^[5]

Kane Brown,^[6] a well-known country music artist, was also a contestant on The X Factor USA,^[7] however he left the show before completing the competition. This shows that the show has been a platform for many artists who later pursued successful careers in music, even if they didn’t win the competition.

The original judging panel consisted of Cowell, Paula Abdul, Cheryl Cole, and L.A. Reid, with Nicole Scherzinger and Steve Jones as co-hosts. Scherzinger would later replace Cole on the judging panel after two audition sites. Demi Lovato and Britney Spears joined the panel in the second season as replacements for Abdul and Scherzinger, while Khloé Kardashian and Mario Lopez replaced Jones as co-hosts. Reid and Spears did not return for the third season and were replaced by Kelly Rowland and Paulina Rubio, while Lopez became sole host after Kardashian was not asked to come back.