<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> <Ul> <Li> ◀ </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> ▶ </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> ◀ </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> ▶ </Li> </Ul> <P> The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent . The seventh series started on ITV on 21 August 2010 and ended on 12 December 2010 . The winner was Matt Cardle and his debut single "When We Collide" was released after the final . Cardle was mentored throughout by Dannii Minogue, who won as mentor for the second time . A total of 15,448,019 votes were cast throughout the series . It was presented by Dermot O'Leary, with spin - off show The Xtra Factor presented by Konnie Huq on ITV2, who took over from Holly Willoughby . </P> <P> The competition was split into several stages: auditions, bootcamp, judges' houses and live shows . Auditions took place throughout June and July 2010, with Simon Cowell, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Cole returning as judges . Minogue missed the auditions and bootcamp due to being on maternity leave, so Geri Halliwell, Natalie Imbruglia, Katy Perry, Pixie Lott and Nicole Scherzinger were brought in as guest judges . Cole missed the auditions in Manchester and bootcamp because she had malaria . Following bootcamp, successful acts were split into four categories: Boys (male soloists aged 16 to 28), Girls (female soloists aged 16 to 28), Over 28s (soloists aged 29 and over) and Groups . Minogue and Cole returned for the judges' houses stage, and each judge mentored eight acts through judges' houses . The live shows started on 9 October 2010 . Four acts eliminated at judges' houses were brought back as wildcards, making this the first series to have 16 acts perform in the live shows . </P>

Who beat one direction on the x factor