The X Factor - Season 7

The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. The seventh series started on ITV on 21 August 2010 and ended on 12 December 2010. The winner was Matt Cardle and his debut single "When We Collide" was released after the final. Cardle was mentored throughout by Dannii Minogue, who won as mentor for the second time. A total of 15,448,019 votes were cast throughout the series. It was presented by Dermot O'Leary, with spin-off show The Xtra Factor hosted by Konnie Huq on ITV2, who took over from Holly Willoughby. The competition was split into several stages: auditions, bootcamp, judges' houses and live shows. Auditions took place throughout June and July 2010, with Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole returning as judges. Special guest judges were brought in to replace Minogue, who was on maternity leave. Cole missed the auditions in Manchester and bootcamp because she had malaria. Following bootcamp, successful acts were split into four categories: Boys, Girls, Over 28s and Groups. Minogue returned for the judges' houses stage, and each judge mentored eight acts through judges' houses. The live shows started on 9 October 2010. Four acts eliminated at judges' houses were brought back as wildcards, making this the first series to have 16 acts perform in the live shows. This series was the last with Cowell, Minogue and Cole as judges, as Gary Barlow, Kelly Rowland and Tulisa Contostavlos replaced them in series 8.