the front runners to host the show. On October 15, 2012, it was officially confirmed by E! News that Kardashian had officially signed on as co-host for the show, with Lopez close to signing a deal and was later confirmed as co-host the next day. Irish music manager and The X Factor UK judge Louis Walsh filled in for Cowell at the Kansas City auditions while Cowell was recovering from bronchitis. On August 27, it was reported that Nick Jonas had signed a deal to help Lovato at judges' houses. It was later reported that Justin Bieber would be helping Reid, Marc Anthony helping Cowell, and will.i.am helping Spears. This was the final season to feature L.A. Reid as a judge, after he announced that he was quitting the show in order to concentrate on other projects. Selection process Auditions The producers' auditions began on March 14, 2012 at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Missouri. More producers' auditions were held on March 22 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas, April 20 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California, May 1 at the Greensboro Coliseum in Greensboro, North Carolina and concluded on May 10 at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The judges' auditions took place between May and July. The auditions went without a host as they had yet to hire new hosts by the time auditions started. Bootcamp Filming for bootcamp was held on July 25–27, 2012 in Miami. As with the auditions, there were no hosts at bootcamp. 120 contestants made it to the Bootcamp stage. At bootcamp the contestants had to perform two tasks. Task 1 involved the contestants had to sing solo, after which the judges eliminated half of the acts, bringing the total down to 60. In Task 2 the contestants were paired up to perform together. After Task 2 the judges narrowed down the acts to the 24 who progress on to the Judges's homes round. The groups Fifth Harmony, Playback, and LYRIC 145 were formed from eliminated contestants from the Teens, Young Adults and Groups categories in bootcamp. Fifth Harmony was known as LYLAS at this stage; their name was changed after they made the top 16 when a group consisting of four of Bruno Mars' sisters, called "The Lylas", claimed the show stole their name. Their name changed again for the Top 13 performances, as their