As they were voted off the show, the contestants head home to pick up their lives where they left off. Chi Chi finds out who thinks the programme helped them, and who regrets going on the show.

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The X Factor finalists have to make financial and legal decisions, but are they out of their depth? Chi Chi considers how The X Factor makes money even though it is no longer on TV. And how well did the contestants understand the business side of show business?

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The X factor finalists become famous overnight; even popping out to the shops becomes an ordeal. They’re a target for a hungry press and publicity machine; how does that affect them and the staff tasked with looking after them? And how did stories make it to the journalists?

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The contestants who make it through to the live shows live together in a shared house. Chi Chi hears tales of long days, press stories, painful teeth whitening, and a sense of nervous anticipation.

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The X Factor was brilliant at building characters for the audience to love, and hate. Contestants played their roles in each stage, from "bootcamp" to the glitz of the judges' houses.

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Join Chi Chi Izundu as she looks back on the world of The X Factor, where contestants perform in front of celebrity judges to realise their dream. It’s a world of glamour and excitement, but also of hard truths, hard words and hard work. For our hopefuls, the first step is the audition process. We go behind the scenes to look at how the process unfolds, and what staff and contestants remember about the beginning of their road to stardom.

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Join Chi Chi Izundu as she looks back on The X Factor, where contestants perform in front of celebrity judges to realise their dream. It’s a world of glamour and excitement, but also of hard truths, hard words and hard work. For our hopefuls, the first step is the audition process. We go behind the scenes to look at how the process unfolds, and what staff and contestants remember about the beginning of their road to stardom.

Offstage: Inside The X Factor captures the emotion, the excitement and the drama of the show and features some of the captivating characters that led to its enduring success. But it also looks beyond the glitz and glamour revealing what contestants and former staff really think, the toll it took on some of them, and what they say happened behind the scenes.

Offstage: Inside The X Factor is available as a box set on Friday 26 January 2024.