The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent; the winner of which receives a £1 million recording contract with the Syco Music record label. The first series was broadcast from 4 September to 11 December 2004. The competition was split into several stages: auditions, bootcamp, judges' homes and live shows, with Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne and Simon Cowell as judges. Kate Thornton presented the show on ITV, whilst Ben Shephard presented the spin-off show The Xtra Factor on ITV2. Auditions were held in Dublin, Newcastle, London, Leeds, Birmingham and Glasgow. Steve Brookstein won the series, with Cowell as the winning mentor. Brookstein went on to have some chart success, with runner-up group G4 achieving two platinum albums before splitting up in 2007, but reuniting in 2014. Selection process Applications and auditions Before the auditions, advertisements appeared on ITV, newspapers, and trade magazines, promising that the new show would encourage groups to join, and while the emphasis was on singing, would welcome those who played musical instruments and wrote their own songs. The show would differentiate itself from its predecessor, Pop Idol. For the first episode of auditions, which aired on 4 September 2004, the judges visited Leeds and London. The second episode aired on 11 September 2004 in which the judges visited Newcastle. The third aired on 18 September 2004, the fourth on 25 September 2004 and the fifth on 2 October 2004. Bootcamp and judges' houses After the auditions, each judge was allocated a category at random: Simon Cowell: Over 25s Sharon Osbourne: 16-24s Louis Walsh: Groups Each judge chose 12 acts from their category to go through to round two. After bootcamp, each judge selected five acts to progress to the judges' homes round. The bootcamp episodes aired on 9 and 16 October 2004. In judges' homes, the 15 acts went to the homes of their respective judges, where they were interviewed and performed again. Each judge then chose three acts to go through to the live shows, making a total of nine finalists. Bootcamp Tasks per Category 16-24s: Location: Hackney Empire Task 1: Perform "Isn't She Lovely" by Stevie Wonder in lines of 10. Task 2: Giving a solo performance of one of these two chosen songs below: "Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)" "Midnight Train to Georgia" Task 3: Interviews in front of the press and talking about their personal