the live shows, the judges acted as mentors to their category, helping to decide song choices, styling and staging, while judging contestants from other categories. For each season, each judge was assigned a category and they mentored their three acts individually, with all acts having a shared amount of time with their mentor. Each of the 12 acts also had rehearsal time in the studio with their mentor. In some cases, if a solo artist was not strong enough, the judges would put together a group of solo artists which had potential to be great as a band. In season six only, a wildcard was introduced to add one more act to the live shows, thus making it 13 finalists. Categories In season 1, the show was split into three categories: 16-24s, Over 25s and Groups. In seasons 2-7, the 16-24s category was split into separate male and female sections, making four categories in all: Boys, Girls, Over 25s, and Groups. In season 3 onwards, the minimum age for the Boys and Girls categories was lowered to 14. In season 5 only, the Over 25s was changed to Over 24s. In season 6, It was changed back to Over 25s for series 6, In Season 8, the Over 25s was changed to Over 22s, Boys and Girls has been defunct and making the 14-21s to come back, Bands are now able to audition, any can play instruments - they will be part of the Groups category. Stages There were five stages to the competition: Stage 1: Open auditions: these auditions decided who would sing in front of the judges (season 2–8) Stage 2: Judges' auditions Stage 3: Masterclass (season 1), bootcamp (season 2–6) or seat challenge (season 7–8) Stage 4: Judges' houses (season 1) or super home visits (season 2–7) Stage 5: Live shows (finals) For the first season, the judges' auditions, masterclass, the judges' houses and the live finals were the four stages to the competition. For the revived second season, the stages changed to open auditions, judges' auditions, bootcamp, super home visits and the live shows. This remained unchanged until season 8, when the stages changed to open auditions, judges' auditions, three seat challenge and the live shows. Auditions In the first round, the first set of auditions were held in front of the show's producers, months before The X Factor was aired. The open auditions were not