X Factor uncovered! Thought there was drama on screen? Behind the scenes of ITV's biggest reality show
By Dan Wootton
Last updated at 12:09 PM on 25th November 2011
Glam: Amelia Lily is dressed to impress
Undoubtedly, it’s one of our most successful - and controversial - TV shows, shattering the dreams of thousands, while making the careers of a very select few.
But, until now, what goes on backstage at The X Factor has remained secret.
Last Saturday, I was given unprecedented fly-on-the-wall access to the live show - from daybreak to midnight.
So, which judges hate each other off-screen as well as on? Who’s been given Simon Cowell’s luxury dressing room? And which contestant had a diva-style tantrum mid-show?
If only they would broadcast it. Because what happens off-camera is even more gripping than what you see on TV.
No wonder judge Kelly Rowland insists: 'What happens backstage should stay backstage...'
9.30am: Bleary-eyed and dishevelled, this year’s contestants arrive at Wembley’s Fountain Studios, the show’s distinctly unglamorous concrete home. Welcome to the not-so-alluring side of The X Factor.
The acts rehearsed for 18 hours the day before. They are so tired they can barely manage smiles - not even for the 50 die-hard fans who turn up before dawn just to catch a glimpse of their favourites.
The production team are annoyed, as the youngsters ignored their wake-up calls. A frustrated young researcher unsuccessfully tried to get them out of bed at ten-minute intervals from 7.30am until 8.10am. Now the all-important schedule is running nearly an hour late.
Marcus Collins, 23; Misha B, 19; Amelia Lily, 17; Janet Devlin, 17; Craig Colton, 22; and four-piece teen girl group Little Mix, stay at a five-star London hotel on Friday and Saturday nights. For the rest of the week they live at an opulent £3.5million mansion in Hertfordshire.
All smiles: Little Mix with their mentor Tulisa
Access all areas: Dan Wootton behind the scenes at X Factor with Marcus Collins
As soon as they arrive at Wembley, the group are taken to the studio’s canteen, where they all wolf down a full English breakfast, apart from Craig who opts for poached eggs after being put on a strict diet by his mentor Gary Barlow.
9.45am: Head make-up artist Natalya Nair, whose personal style makes Patsy from Ab Fab look demure, is fretting as the contestants are late.
It can take up to 11 hours to perfect each aspiring star’s look before they’re ready to go on stage.
Little Mix have barely digested their breakfast before they’re whisked into the brightly lit make-up room.
'Sweetheart,' Natalya says, air-kissing me. ‘We spend thousands on cosmetics and we’ll go through 40 pairs of false eyelashes alone. I’m using four layers of solid ink so they don’t melt under the lights.'
I ask about rumours of a feud between Natalya and headstrong judge Kelly Rowland, the former Destiny’s Child diva who is mentoring the solo girls.
I’m told in the early shows Kelly would change Natalya’s handiwork on her girls, resulting in rows. Uncompromising Kelly insisted she would have the final say, so Natalya complained to executives.
'That has been corrected,' she snaps. ‘Bosses told Kelly: "No more." She listens to me now. If I don’t like what she’s done to Misha, she doesn’t go on. I’ll be there by the stage with two minutes to go, rubbing that s*** off.' So there was a feud.
10am: I poke my head into the green room - a tiny space about the size of a single bedroom where contestants wait between appearances - and find Marcus asleep on the couch. He’s even brought the pillow from the hotel with him.
The wannabes, unlike the judges, don’t have their own dressing rooms. They change here or in shared loos. Hardly the popstar lifestyle they’re fighting for.
11am: Presenter Dermot O’Leary is the first star to arrive and heads to the studio to start running through tonight’s 75-minute show.
Hairstylist Jamie Stevens and his team of five are also preparing for a frenetic few hours, with Amelia’s pink extensions the first priority. His BlackBerry pings and a curt email from judge Kelly pops up. ‘What are you doing with my girls?’ she demands to know.
Jamie tells me: ‘When the girls are 80 per cent ready, I take them into Kelly’s room so she can finish them off.’
Logged in: Janet Devlin takes time out to use her laptop
Three of the judges have their own personal hairdresser on set, but Jamie laughs: ‘Louis doesn’t, so I trim his hair. I needed to get rid of his Tintin quiff!’
12.30pm: Vocal coach Anne-Marie Speed barely gets to see each performer for more than 15 minutes, so she gives them each a bizarre sort of teapot to carry around, apparently in order to suck steam to hydrate their lungs. You would think they were about to perform an aria at the Royal Opera House, rather than a two-minute rip-off of a pop song.
2pm: The show’s 18 - yes, 18 - senior producers face the first crisis of the day.
Peter Dickson, the distinctive voice of The X Factor, who introduces the judges and acts, is threatening to quit over plans to use a different voiceover artist tonight to fit in with the film theme. The producers eventually back down and the other voiceover man is sent home.
2.30pm: Commotion as bodyguards with Secret Service-style earpieces herald a grand arrival. Yes, Kelly is in the building.
Her entourage of six sweeps down the faded blue carpet in the shabby corridor and straight into her dressing room. There’s a hairdresser, make-up artist, PR adviser, personal assistant and two stylists - all of whom, I’m assured, are completely necessary.
Suits you: Craig Colton gives the camera beaming smile in his smart threads
3.30pm: Gary Barlow is next to arrive, bringing with him a PA, make-up artist, stylist and his own menacing security guard who follows him wherever he goes; he even stands outside his dressing room to limit access to show staff.
It was assumed Gary would be allocated show boss Simon Cowell’s extravagant and now-vacant dressing room, a floor above the others.
It includes a state-of-the-art entertainment system, designer leather couches, an exemption to the studio-wide smoking ban and a bath which faces a giant TV screen where Simon would watch rehearsals.
Instead, Gary was given Cheryl Cole’s sparse dressing room, with its faded brown couches. There’s a separate loo but no bathroom, so a shower has been installed in the corner.
Cowell’s pad has been kept as a shrine to the show’s creator (or possibly on hold for his eventual return), only opened up for those deemed worthy enough — Lady Gaga, Nicole Scherzinger and Rihanna have been allowed to use it.
4.30pm: Tulisa Contostavlos arrives, wearing a purple hooded tracksuit. Her entourage of four includes her PA, tour manager, combined make-up artist and hairdresser, and stylist.
5pm: The tension is building as the corridors throng with production staff and contestants. A staff member politely asks Janet Devlin if she will be interviewed. ‘No. I need to rehearse my song,’ she answers bluntly before storming off. The Irish teen often seeks solace in a little-used loo upstairs to practise before the show.
Marvellous make-up: Jade Thirlwall with Natalya Nair as preparations for the show get firmly under way
5.15pm: Kelly leaves her dressing room for the first time to speak to Misha B, who she appears to shower with more attention than her other two contestants. Kelly’s face is virtually covered by a silk green scarf and big sunglasses. She is wearing tight red trousers and a blue blazer.
I’m told she refuses to get herself ready for the show before she ‘knows her girls are happy’.
5.30pm: Dinner of roast chicken with bacon and potato casserole is served to the contestants in the canteen, although the judges’ meals are delivered to their dressing rooms. Weight-conscious Kelly and Gary opt for a salad.
5.45pm: A full dress rehearsal begins. The judges’ places are taken by four junior production runners who cherish the chance to sit down for an hour so the show’s technical staff can line-up the camera shots and lighting for the actual show.
6pm: A relaxed Louis Walsh is the last judge to arrive. He has no entourage, but hosts a number of music industry figures, personal friends he flies in from Dublin and celebrity pals — tonight’s are David Walliams and his supermodel wife, Lara Stone.
Louis holds private conversations, by necessity because of lack of space, in the room’s walk-in wardrobe.
6.30pm: Producers have made last-minute changes to Misha B’s performance and decided she will need a new dress. This causes panic among the 14 stylists in the clothes caravan, located in a car park outside the studio. Meanwhile, Craig complains that his tuxedo is too snug — ‘I cannot breathe in this. Literally, they’ve belted me in’.
In a second late change, it has been decided he will now open the show instead of Janet, which has made him doubly unhappy. ‘Nobody wants to be on at the start because of the curse of the first,’ mutters a researcher, referring to the fact that the act voted off is often the one that has started the show when many viewers are still watching Strictly Come Dancing on the BBC.
Hair we go: Misha B with hairstylist Jamie Stevens
7.45pm: Kelly calls her three girls away into her dressing room for a group hug. ‘Be confident, you’re all great, it’s going to be a good night,’ she squeals.
Back in the canteen, Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson, her hair still in curlers, politely holds the door open for guests to walk through to the studio.
8.15pm: Despite being just yards away from each other for the past few hours, the judges have not exchanged a word. When a producer yells ‘30 seconds till on air’, they gather in the corridor awaiting the march into the studio. Gary and Louis gingerly embrace, but Tulisa and Kelly do not speak. The tension is palpable.
In order to keep her distance, Kelly dances down the hallway arm-in-arm with her hairstylist, who clutches a bottle of nuclear-strength hairspray at all times. They stand in icy silence behind the stage doors awaiting Dermot’s introduction.
8.35pm: First act Craig storms off the stage, unhappy with his performance of Licence to Kill, which was not well received by Tulisa and Louis.
He is immediately confronted by make-up boss Natalya, who is furious she wasn’t able to give him a touch-up of foundation beforehand, which resulted in him looking sweaty in front of 12 million viewers. ‘Don’t you ever do that again,’ she screams at him. (He won’t get the chance, as he will be voted off the show the next night.) With a face like thunder, Craig heads for the contestants’ green room. But he can’t get in, because it’s been locked by Misha B who is warbling Whitney Houston’s I Have Nothing before she goes on stage.
Two assistants, a make-up artist and a member of Little Mix yell at Misha, who has been accused of bullying the girl band by their judge Tulisa, to open the door. Their clothes and phones are all in the room. Eventually, Marcus, who has been next door helping with Little Mix’s make-up, bangs on the door and screams: ‘Misha, I need to get make-up from in there.’ She relents and unlocks the door. It’s obvious the contestants get on no better than their warring mentors.
8.40pm: In the dressing rooms, each entourage awaits the ad breaks, when all four judges retreat to their private space rather than spend the few minutes sitting at the judging table. Heaven forbid they have to utter a word to each other off camera.
Absurdly, they spend no more than 30 seconds in their dressing room before being summoned back.
9pm: If the changing facilities for contestants are bad, spare a thought for the 16 professional dancers who have to make their costume change behind a temporary partition in the canteen, which does little to protect their modesty as a 40-strong choir and ten-piece orchestra look on.
9.30pm: As Marcus and Little Mix celebrate their show-stealing performances, Olly Murs and Caroline Flack are refereeing a heated row between Gary and Tulisa on the ITV2 spin-off programme The Xtra Factor.
The minute the cameras stop rolling, the judges leave their desk and head back to their dressing rooms, still without speaking. Off camera, I haven’t seen Kelly utter a word to Tulisa or Louis all night. Their feud, which many have speculated was staged for the cameras, appears very genuine.
9.45pm: Around 200 of the contestants’ friends and family are herded past the portable loos into the canteen, where they can buy £14 bottles of wine. The atmosphere is almost tribal as the groups don’t mix.
Craig’s clan, wearing t-shirts with his face printed on, gather in one corner, while Misha B’s staunch friends stand at the far side of the room, glaring at anyone who comes too close.
Marcus, who is the most popular contestant with the production staff, even offering to do their hair, also seems to have the most friendly family, perhaps because of the glowing comments he received on stage. His mother Tracy, a teacher, arranges a mini-van for his supporters to travel from Liverpool every week.
In the Little Mix corner, 18-year-old Jade Thirlwall tearfully hugs her mum goodbye. Jade has used the money she earned from appearing in the M&S Christmas commercial to fund her mother’s weekly trips from Newcastle.
10.15pm: I’m escorted past security staff back into the judges’ corridor. Gary and Kelly briefly speak to their contestants before their chauffeured cars speed them back to their superstar worlds.
Tulisa invites me to join her for a drink. ‘My dressing room is the most fun,’ she says. ‘You can smoke, drink and have a laugh in here!’ Louis chats to Tulisa’s mother. The most unlikely pair of judges have formed X Factor’s only genuine friendship this year.
11pm: Back in the canteen, another set of security guards are at work. ‘Clear the room,’ they bellow, and quite literally, tear 16-year-old Amelia Lily away from her grandmother, who is wearing a pink wig in support.
VIP guests are treated with the same disdain as they are evicted into the crisp night with only the McDonald’s next door as a place to wait for taxis.
12.30am: The contestants arrive back at their hotel after 15 hours of work. There’ll be a wake-up call at 7.30am to start the process all over again. I’m relieved I don’t have to!
The X Factor is on ITV1 tomorrow and Sunday at 8pm.
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