Sam Callahan

The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. The tenth series began airing on ITV on 31 August, and finished on 15 December 2013. Dermot O'Leary returned to present the main show on ITV and Caroline Flack was back to present spin-off show The Xtra Factor on ITV2, along with comedian Matt Richardson, who replaced Olly Murs. Flack also presented backstage segments during the live shows. Louis Walsh, Gary Barlow and Nicole Scherzinger returned as judges for their respective tenth, third and second series, with Sharon Osbourne returning to replace Tulisa after five series away. This was Barlow's final series as a judge. Osbourne and Scherzinger also departed the series, but reprised their roles as judges with Walsh again in series 13 and series 14. Auditions for the series started in March 2013 with mobile auditions taking place in 23 towns and cities. After this, open auditions in front of producers took place in April and May in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow. Auditions in front of the judges occurred in June and July in the same five cities, with two types of audition: auditionees who were successful in a first audition in an audition room, used for the first time since series 5, went on to attend an audition in an arena, which replaced the rooms in series 6. After bootcamp and judges' houses, the live shows began on 12 October 2013, and ran until the final on 15 December 2013, which was won by over 25s contestant Sam Bailey. This marked the first time someone from the over 25s category had won the show since Steve Brookstein won series 1 in 2004. It also marked the first time that Osbourne had been the winning mentor. As the winner, Bailey received a £1 million recording contract with Syco Music, and also supported Beyoncé at one of her shows during the UK leg of her The Mrs. Carter Show World Tour in 2014. This was the final series of the three-year deal signed by Simon Cowell in 2010, before it was announced by ITV on 15 November that the show's contract was extended by a further three years, keeping it on air until 2016.