The X Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent; the winner of which receives a £1 million recording contract with the Syco Music record label. The first series was broadcast from 4 September to 11 December 2004. The competition was split into several stages: auditions, bootcamp and live shows, with Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh as judges. It was won by Steve Brookstein, who went on to have some chart success, with runners-up G4 achieving two platinum albums before splitting up in 2007. Cowell was the winning mentor. Brookstein and Cowell reportedly fell out over Cowell's insistence that he record cover versions, rather than self-penned material, leading to him being dropped from Sony BMG, and his name being little-mentioned in subsequent series of the show.