The X Factor Finals ended on December 12, 2010. The Finals were hosted by Dermot O’Leary, and the judges were – as always – Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole, Dannii Minogue, Louis Walsh with special guest appearances by Geri Halliwell, Natalie Imbruglia, Kary Perry, Pixie Lott, and Nicole Scherzinger.
The winner of the season was Matt Cardle. He was mentored throughout the show by Dannii Minogue. After the announcement of his success, he released his debut single “When We Collide”. Cardle received 15,48, 019 votes over the show.
This was one of the most controversial seasons, with several complaints about so many issues: voting being fixed, some candidates having record deals when the show started. Despite everything, it was the season with a record audience of an average of 14.13 million viewers per episode. Only the finals were watched by 17.71 million people, which proved the show to be the highest-rated television episode of 2010 in the United Kingdom.
All of the live shows took place at The Fountain Studios in Wembley, starting off October 9, 2010. All performers went on the stage on Saturday nights, and the results were announced on the Sunday night shows. Finals, December 11-12, had each episode lasting two hours. And here is the table with the contestants:
Matt Cardle Winner
Rebecca Ferguson Runner-Up
One Direction 3rd Place
Cher Lloyd 4th Place
Mary Byrne 5th Place
Wagner 6th Place
Katie Waissel 7th Place
Paije Richardson 8th Place
Aiden Grimshaw 9th Place
Treyc Cohen 10th Place
Belle Amie 11th Place
John Adeleye 12th Place
Diva Fever 13th Place
Storm Lee 14th Place
F.Y.D. 15th Place
Nicolo Festa 16th Place
2010 finalists recorded a charity single – a cover of David Bowie’s 1977 hit “Heroes”. This charity single was aimed to support Help For Heroes, a charity which is supporting injured servicemen and women. Sixteen finalists performed the song on November 20. It was the third charity record released on the X-Factor show. It entered both the Irish and UK singles chart at number one a week after the release.
