The X Factor Indonesia

The X Factor Indonesia is an Indonesian television music competition to find new singing talent; the winner of which receives a 1 billion rupiah including a recording contract with Sony Music Indonesia. It premiered on December 28, 2012 on RCTI. It is the second franchise to be adapted in Southeast Asia after the Philippines.

As part of the British The X Factor franchise, the show's format has numerous differences from rivals such as Indonesian Idol. The competition is open to both solo artists and groups and has no upper age limit. Each judge is assigned one of four categories—boys between 15 and 23, girls between 15 and 23, individuals 24 and over, or groups (some of which may be formed from rejected soloists after the audition process). Throughout the live shows the judges act as mentors to their category, helping to decide song choices, styling and staging, while judging contestants from the other categories; they also compete to ensure that their act wins the competition, thus making them the winning judge.

History

Although Indonesian Idol went on to become an enormous success and the number 1 show in Indonesia for seven consecutive seasons, the original UK version, Pop Idol did not fare so well. Cowell, who was a judge on Pop Idol, wished to launch a show which he owned the rights to. Pop Idol's first series was massively successful, and while the second series was also successful, the viewers figure for its finale dropped.^[1] Some—including Pop Idol judge Pete Waterman—^[2] considered Michelle McManus an unworthy winner. In 2004, Pop Idol was axed and ITV announced a new show created by former Pop Idol judge Simon Cowell, with no involvement from Idol creator Simon Fuller—The X Factor. Its ratings were average in the first couple of series, but by the sixth series in 2009, ratings were hitting 10 million each week.

In March 2010, RCTI, the broadcaster of Indonesian Idol, signed the deal to launch the Indonesian version of The X Factor.

At first, the X Factor Indonesia is planned as a replacement for Indonesian Idol in 2012, but due to the enormous success of the 7th seasonRCTI and FremantleMedia decided to continue to collaborate on both the X Factor Indonesia and Indonesian Idol with each playing on alternate years. To repeat the success of seventh season of Indonesian Idol, Fabian Dharmawan from RCTI is appointed to be the Executive Producer for RCTI for the first season of the X Factor Indonesia, Head of Entertainment of Fremantle Media, Glenn Sims together with Virgita Ruchiman and Ken Irawati serving as Executive Producers for Fremantle Indonesia.

In August 2012, RCTI began airing short commercials for the program, which displayed the text "Coming Soon in Indonesia". A second promo was shown during that night, featuring One Direction, Agnes Monica, Afgan, Iwan Fals, 3 Diva, Glenn Fredly, SM*SH, Ariel 'NOAH', Ayu Ting Ting, 7 Icons and Tria 'The Changcuters'. This promo started speculation on who would be judges on the X Factor Indonesia.

X Factor premiered in Indonesia on December 28, 2012.

Format and prize

The show is primarily concerned with identifying singing talent, though appearance, personality, stage presence and dance routines are also an important element of many performances. Each judge is assigned one of four categories—either girls between 15 and 24, boys between 15 and 24, individuals 25 and over, or groups (some of which may be formed from rejected soloists after the audition process). Through the live shows, the judges act as mentors to their category, helping to decide song choices, styling and staging, while judging contestants from other categories.

The winner of the competition is awarded a recording contract with Sony Music Indonesia, which would include cash payments totaling 1 billion rupiah. It's the largest guaranteed prize in Indonesian television history.

There are five stages to the X Factor Indonesia:

• Stage 1: Producers' auditions (these auditions decide who will sing in front of the judges)
• Stage 2: Judges' auditions
• Stage 3: Bootcamp
• Stage 4: Judges' houses
• Stage 5: Live shows (finals)

Auditions

The show is open to solo artists and vocal groups aged 15 and above. Successful auditionees from the producers audition in front of the judges and live audience wherein the judges must vote to allow the auditionee to proceed to the next round. In that case, at least three judges have to say yes for the auditionee to move on to the next round. There is also online audition which the auditionees can upload their performance on the X Factor Indonesia website and the get the vote from viewers on Youtube. An auditionee with the most voted video will get the chance to meet the judges and awarded cash prize.

Bootcamp and judges' home visits

In the Boot Camp, contestants will have to go through a series of performances to test their "x factor." The number of contestants will then be trimmed down to 26 contestants and will be divided into four categories - Under-26 Boys (6 solo male contestants aged 15–25), Under-26 Girls (7 solo female contestants aged 15–25), Over-26s (8 solo adult contestants over 26 years old) and Groups (5 group contestants).

At the bootcamp, the producers will also reveal which category the judges will be mentoring. The judges then disband for the "judges' home visits" round, where they further reduce their acts on location at a residence with the help of a celebrity guest mentor.

Gala live shows

The finals consist of a series of two gala live shows, with the first featuring the contestants' performances and the second revealing the results of the public voting. Celebrity guest performers will be featured regularly.

Judges and hosts

Anggun is one of the judge in the first season.

Many people were rumored to be in the running to join the judging panel, including Indra Lesmana, Titi DJ, Maia Estianty, Vina Panduwinata, Tompi, Anang Hermansyah, Sherina Munaf, Agnes Monica, Ruth Sahanaya, and Iwan Fals. Eventually, Dewa 19-frontman, musician, songwriter, and record producer Ahmad Dhani, singer, musician, and songwriter Bebi Romeo, pop diva Rossa, and International Diva Anggun were confirmed to join this show as judges. Pop sensational singer Mulan Jameela filled in for Anggun at the auditions while Anggun was performing in her Europe Live Tour Concert. Numerous people were speculated to host the series, including VJ Boy William and Daniel Mananta, host of Indonesian Idol. On November 23, 2012, ex-VJ Robby Purba was announced as host of the show.

Judges' categories and their finalists

In each season, each judge is allocated a category to mentor and chooses a small number of acts to progress to the live shows. This table shows, for each season, which category each judge was allocated and which acts he or she put through to the live shows.

The mentors will find out their categories during the Judges' home visit phase of the competition which will also be the very first appearance by Anggun.

Post X Factor Indonesia

The winner of the X Factor Indonesia is awarded a recording contract from Sony Music Indonesia. A press release on behalf of the show called the recording contract "the biggest guaranteed prize in Indonesia television history".

Media sponsorship

On September 29, 2012, RCTI, SYCOtv and FremantleMedia Asia announced that Cross Mobile will be the official sponsor of the X Factor Indonesia. The sponsorship includes an extensive multi-platform on and off-air marketing partnership. On December 26, Kopi ABC was announced as the second official sponsor of the show. Kopi ABC's sponsorship will also include an extensive multi-platform on and off-air marketing partnership. Indosat Mentari, a product of PT Indosat Tbk which is controlled by PT Infokom Elektrindo (MNC Media), was confirmed as the third official sponsor on December 28. Indosat Mentari's sponsorship of the X Factor Indonesia will also include an extensive multi-platform on and off-air marketing partnership between Indosat and MNC Sky Vision. Oriflame also sponsors the show; they are the official make-up sponsor.