Sharon Osbourne’s feisty return to X Factor boosts audience ratings

Saturday night saw the return of the X Factor- along with former judge Sharon Osbourne.

sharon-hero

by Jessica Anais Rach |
Published on

To celebrate 10 years of the talent competition there have been a few shake-ups, both in the judging panel and the audition process.

ITV are hoping these will be enough to win back viewers after a drop in figures over the past few series.

It seems that Sharon has done the trick: 9.2million viewers tuned in, 500,000 more than last year, with a peak of 10.3million.

This year's X Factor judging panel
This year's X Factor judging panel

This year has also seen the return of the audition room.

Contestants now have to sing in front of the four judges- Nicole Scherzinger, Gary Barlow and Louis Walsh- before being put through to the arena stage.

The audition process has been split over two nights with the room auditions on Saturday and the arena stage on Sunday.

35-year-old prison officer Sam Bailey opened up the show with an amazing performance

This weekend’s hopefuls included Sam Bailey, a 35-year-old prison worker from Leicester who stunned the judges- and the audience- with her surprising but powerful voice.

Mother-of-two Sam blew the audience away last with her version of Smokey Robinson’s Who’s Lovin’ You, which brought the judges and the audience to a standing ovation.

Other standout acts included 17-year-old Hannah Barrett and 16-year-old Tamera Foster.

Tamera, 16, stunned audiences with her stunning rendition of a Whitney Houston hit

During the arena stage, Tamera fluffed her lines but eventually found her confidence and gave a stunning rendition of Whitney Houston’s I Have Nothing.

Last night after the show Nicole, 35, tweeted: “Can you believe Tamera is SIXTEEN?!? So. Much. Potential. #xfactor”.

We can hardly wait to see what talent this weekend brings!

Just so you know, we may receive a commission or other compensation from the links on this website - read why you should trust us