X Factor: Viewers to decide judges categories

Viewers will decide which judge gets which category in the show’s brand new format.

Viewers can vote via hashtag on Twitter to determine which of the judges is allocated each of the four categories – the Girls, Boys, Groups and Overs.

The fate of the four judges – Cheryl Fernandez-Verisni, Simon Cowell, Rita Ora and Nick Grimshaw – and the acts will rest in the hands of the public, with the live Twitter vote opening during the first episode on Saturday (August 29) and closing on Tuesday, September 1 at 12pm.

Cowell, Cheryl, Ora and Grimshaw will be informed of the public’s decision during filming of the six-chair challenge at the SSE Arena, Wembley.

To vote, viewers can tweet the hashtag with the name of their chosen judge followed by the category they want to see them mentor.

The judges and categories have each been given their very own special emoji which will appear across tweets during the vote.

Speaking about this year’s categories in a press release ahead of the show’s launch, Cowell said: “Interestingly, there’s no weak category this year.

“I can see who the winner of each category could be. It could all change, we’ve only seen them for the first time, then the second time we see them they could be terrible.

“So we’ll see.”