The stats from the last 13 series show that the mentor with the X Factor definitely isn’t Louis Walsh
- Irish judge has win rate of just 2% and has average act finish position of eight
- Tulisa has the worst average female finish position for her acts (ninth)
- Nicole ‘Scher-winner’ and Danni Minogue boast best X Factor win rates
- Boys’ category wins most – four times more than the groups and overs
With the latest X Factor live shows approaching, a look at the performances of the 12 mentors in the show’s 13 series shows that Nicole Scherzinger is its most successful judge whilst Louis Walsh, who’s been present on the panel for all but one year, is amongst the worst.
The research from BonusCodeBets.co.uk finds that girls rule when it comes to mentoring winning acts, with 75% of the winners having had a female mentor, despite the last 11 series featuring a 50:50 split between male and female judges.
Girl power
Nicole Scherzinger (whose winning acts were Matt Terry and James Arthur) and Danni Minogue (Leon Jackson and Matt Cardle) have the best rate for multiple-series judges with 22% and 15% of their acts reaching number one spot respectively. In addition, the Pussycat Dolls singer tops the leader board of mentors, with her averaging a final finishing position of five across all her acts, compared to Kelly Rowland (5.75) and Rita Ora (6), with Danni Minogue completing the top four on 6.38.
Whilst Louis Walsh has a win-rate of just 2% and only one winning act, Shane Ward in 2005. Tulisa has the worst overall average finish position for her acts (ninth) across the two seasons she judged, even though she won the X Factor crown with Little Mix in 2011. The stats indicate that Gary Barlow, who joined the show for three seasons, may have lacked a little ‘Patience’ with no winning acts and an average finishing position of eight for his acts.
As far as the original head judge and creator of X Factor Simon Cowell is concerned, he has won the show more times than any other male mentor (three times with Steve Brookstein, Leona Lewis and Ben Haenow), despite having only appeared in 10 series of his own show and is the fifth most successful mentor with an average finishing position if 6.53.
Average judge finish position:
| Judge | Average finish position |
| Nicole Scherzinger | 5.00 |
| Kelly Rowland | 5.75 |
| Rita Ora | 6.00 |
| Dannii Minogue | 6.38 |
| Simon Cowell | 6.53 |
| Cheryl Cole | 6.65 |
| Nick Grimshaw | 6.67 |
| Sharon Osborne | 6.75 |
| Louis Walsh | 8.14 |
| Gary Barlow | 8.18 |
| Mel B | 8.75 |
| Tulisa Contostavlos | 9.00 |
Category crunch time
When it comes to winning categories, the boys have finished in the top three more times than the groups (five times) and overs (four times), despite the lads’ category only being created in series four. Boys beat the girls when it comes to average finishing positions too (6.3) while the girls and the overs lag behind (7) followed by the groups (8.26.)
Alexander Kostin of BonusCodeBets.co.uk comments: “Louis Walsh has come to be recognised as a figure of fun putting through novelty acts such as Jedward and Wagner. But it can’t be much fun for his contestants as the stats show they will have less chance of winning this year’s show than any of the acts with another mentor.”
