Harrison Cole

The X Factor: The Band is a special edition of British reality talent competition The X Factor, which premiered on 9 December 2019 on ITV. The format for the series was announced on 4 November 2019 as a replacement for a planned All Stars spin-off series, which was originally supposed to air following The X Factor: Celebrity in late 2019. The format is an accelerated version of The X Factor whereby solo artists auditioned in front of Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger And Leona Lewis to try to win a place in a boyband or girlband. The new bands would then compete for a chance to join Cowell's record label and launch their careers. Following closed auditions at Cowell's record label, series 3 winner Leona Lewis joined the judges panel for the live audience auditions and live finale. Industry experts were also on hand to help including producers Naughty Boy and Fred Ball as well as singer Ella Eyre and songwriter Carla Williams. The Band ran over the course of four episodes on 9, 11 and 13 December 2019. The live finale was held at Resorts World Arena on 15 December 2019, where the girlband Real Like You beat boyband Unwritten Rule to win a recording contract with Syco Music. Real Like You's winner's single is an original song titled "Be Like Them".