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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Barbara Ellen

Life after Will Young: how talent shows shaped Britain

Will Young Simon Cowell X Factor United Kingdom
The finalists in series one of Pop Idol, including Jessica Garlick, Gareth Gates, Will Young, Darius Danesh and Zoe Birkett .
The finalists in series one of Pop Idol, including Jessica Garlick, Gareth Gates, Will Young, Darius Danesh and Zoe Birkett. Photograph: Fremantle Media/Rex

Next month, it will be 20 years since the Pop Idol final. Watched by 15 million viewers, Will Young triumphed over Gareth Gates with 53.1% of a record 8.7 million votes.

It wasn’t just the start of things for Young and Gates, it marked the birth of a cultural phenomenon: the television talent show. In 2004, one of the Pop Idol judges, Simon Cowell, launched The X Factor in the UK, a primetime weekend TV show to discover new singing talent.

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