The X Factor Israel

The X Factor Israel (Hebrew: אקס פקטור ישראל) is the Israeli version of the British television music competition The X Factor, created by Simon Cowell. The show started airing fall of 2013^[1] on Reshet.^[2]

The X Factor Israel
Genre	Reality television
Created by	Simon Cowell
Presented by	Bar Refaeli (2013–2018) Liron Weizman (2021–2022)
Judges	Rami Fortis (2013–2015) Moshe Peretz (2013–2018) Shiri Maimon (2013–2018) Ivri Lider (2013–2018) Subliminal (2017–2018) Aviv Geffen (2021–2022) Netta (2021–2022) Margol (2021–2022) Ran Danker (2021–2022) Miri Mesika (2021–2022)
Composer	Simon Cowell
Country of origin	Israel
Original languages	Hebrew English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	86
Production
Producers	Thames Tamira Yardeni
Production location	Nokia Arena Tel Aviv
Running time	60–150 minutes
Original release
Network	Channel 2 (Reshet) (2013–2017) Reshet 13 (2017–2022)
Release	October 26, 2013 (2013-10-26) – February 3, 2022 (2022-02-03)

Judges and hosts

The first three seasons were hosted by Israeli fashion model Bar Refaeli. Liron Weizman [he] hosts the fourth season.^[3][4] Its judges for the first season of the show were rock singer Rami Fortis, pop singer-songwriter and composer Moshe Peretz, pop and R&B singer Shiri Maimon, and pop singer Ivri Lider. In the third season, rapper Subliminal replaced Rami Fortis as a judge on the show. In the fourth season, all of the judging panel changes: Mizrahi singer Margalit Tzan'ani, singer-songwriter Aviv Geffen, singer and Eurovision 2018 winner Netta Barzilai, while a fourth and fifth judges revealed to be Ran Danker and Miri Mesika, making it the first season of X Factor Israel to feature 5 judges instead of 4.

Series overview

To date, three seasons have been broadcast, as summarised below.

  Contestant in (or mentor of) "Rami Fortis"

  Contestant in (or mentor of) "Shiri Maimon"

  Contestant in (or mentor of) "Ivri Lider"

  Contestant in (or mentor of) "Moshe Peretz"

  Contestant in (or mentor of) "Subliminal"

  Contestant in (or mentor of) "Ran Danker"

  Contestant in (or mentor of) "Aviv Geffen"

  Contestant in (or mentor of) "Netta"

  Contestant in (or mentor of) "Miri Mesika and Margol"

Season	Start	Finish	Winner	Runner-up	Third place	Fourth place	Winning mentor	Presenters	Main judges
One	26 October 2013	14 January 2014	Rose Fostanes	Eden Ben Zaken	Ori Shakiv	Fusion	Shiri Maimon	Bar Refaeli	Rami		Moshe	Shiri	Ivri
Two	13 June 2015	September 5 , 2015	Daniel Yafe	Yossi Shitrit	Ana Timofie	Ido & Atara	Rami Fortis
Three	18 October 2017	30 January 2018	Eden Alene	Guy Yahood	Yam Refaeli	The Brinks	Ivri Lider		Subliminal
Four	30 October 2021	5 February 2022	Michael Ben David	Eli Huli	Inbal Bibi	Sapir Saban	Netta	Liron Weizman	Ran		Netta	Aviv	Miri and Margol

Judges' categories and their contestants

In each season, each judge is allocated a category to mentor and chooses a small number of acts (three for season one) to progress to the live shows. This table shows, for each season, which category each judge was allocated and which acts he or she put through to the live shows.

Key:

  – Winning judge/category. Winners are in bold, eliminated contestants in small font.

Season	Rami Fortis	Moshe Peretz	Shiri Maimon	Ivri Lider
One	Girls Eden Ben Zaken Inbal Bibi Tamar Friedman	Boys Ori Shakiv Ben Golan Yahav Tavasi	Over 25s Rose Fostanes Avishachar Jackson Neta Rad	Groups Fusion Tommy & Yan Carakukly
Two	Over 25s Daniel Yafe Libi Shlomit Jersey	Groups Ido and Atara Close Up After The Sun	Girls Ana Timofie Tal Ginat Hadar Lee	Boys Yossi Shitrit Almog Krief Dodo Ivgi Ben Goldshtein
	Subliminal	Moshe Peretz	Shiri Maimon	Ivri Lider
Three	Groups The Brinks Idan and Almog Ori and Tirel	Boys Guy Yahood Honi Assor Daniel Zynchenko	Girls Lin Ben Hamo Reut Levi Teemna Gonen	Teens Eden Alene Yam Refaeli Eliraz Zaada Oriane Recchia
	Aviv Geffen	Miri Mesika and Margol	Netta	Ran Danker
Four	Girls Inbal Bibi Sapir Saban Anna Stefani Gai'da Abu Awad	Groups and Over 25s Linet Shiran and Ron Adi Cohen Tarante Groove Machine Liron Lev	Boys Michael Ben David Eli Huli Shachar Adawi Elisha Nachmias	Teens Ilay Elmakais Lia Navipur Shahar Admoni Agam Abuhatzira

Season 1 (2013–14)

Main article: The X Factor Israel (season 1)

The first season began airing on October 26, 2013, and aired during prime time on Reshet network on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The first episode peaked at 49%, about 1.1 million viewers, making it the highest figure of any Israeli music program.^[5] At the end of bootcamp, 20 contestants made it to the judges' houses. Two acts were eliminated from each judge before the live show. The top 12 finalists continued on for the live shows.^[6]

Season 2 (2015)

Main article: The X Factor Israel (season 2)

The second season began airing on Thursday, June 13, 2015.

Season 3 (2017–18)

Main article: The X Factor Israel (season 3)

The third season began airing on October 18, 2017. The show was hosted by Bar Refaeli and the judges were Moshe Peretz, Shiri Maimon and Ivri Lider, who had been judges in the previous two seasons; they were joined by a new judge, rapper Subliminal.

Season 4 (2021–22)

Main article: The X Factor Israel (season 4)

The fourth season began airing on October 30, 2021. Liron Weizman [he] replaced Bar Refaeli as host.

Originally, Simon Cowell, Aviv Geffen, Margalit Tzan'ani, and Netta were to be judges for this season.^[7] However, it has since been revealed that Cowell decided to pull out.^[8] It was later decided that singers Ran Danker and Miri Mesika would both be judges in the show instead of Cowell, making it the first season of X Factor Israel to feature five judges instead of four.

See also

• Music of Israel
• Television in Israel