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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Outbyte PC Repair FREERepair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →A 2022 archival clip from The X Factor shows judges Simon Cowell, Nicole Scherzinger and Louis Walsh discussing how to turn five solo contestants—including Liam Payne—into a group. It captures a formation discussion, not the band’s first performance or a live announcement. Watch the clip on X Factor Global.
What the X Factor formation clip shows
The footage comes from the 2010 series and was released years later. As ITV News describes the sequence, Niall Horan’s picture is placed down first. Scherzinger suggests imagining a boyband; Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson are added to the discussion, followed by Payne. The judges talk about Payne’s standout audition and confidence as qualities that could make him a leader. Walsh suggests Zayn Malik, and Cowell agrees it is a good idea. ITV News recounts the clip’s sequence.
Scherzinger’s reasoning is explicit in the footage. As quoted by ITV News, she says: “They’re just too talented to get rid of. They’ve got the right look and charisma on stage. I think they’ll be really great in a boyband.” She adds: “They’re like little stars and you can’t get rid of little stars so you put them all together.” The discussion presents the group as a way to keep promising solo contestants in the competition.
How Payne’s later account differs
Weeks before the clip’s release, Payne told Logan Paul’s Impaulsive podcast that he understood himself to be the original member. ITV reported his recollection: “From what I’ve heard part of the reason One Direction was made was because of Simon’s promise to me. That in two years I’ll make this work for you. So he kind of started with my face and worked out around the rest. I’ve never told this story before.”
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That is Payne’s later account of Cowell’s promise, not something the formation footage establishes. In ITV’s description of the clip, Horan’s picture is placed first; Payne’s potential leadership is discussed as the judges consider the lineup. The two accounts describe different evidence and should not be collapsed into a single definitive picture of who the group was “built around.”
How One Direction was formed on The X Factor
All five members—Payne, Styles, Malik, Horan and Tomlinson—had auditioned separately as solo contestants in 2010. The judges assembled them as a group during the competition. The formation discussion is distinct from the group’s first performance together: X Factor UK identifies this separate video as the band’s first performance as a five-piece.
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The group finished third in the 2010 competition, behind winner Matt Cardle and runner-up Rebecca Ferguson. The final drew 17 million viewers in the UK, according to the Associated Press’s 2024 report on the event; that historical audience figure is for the final, not for the later formation clip. AP also quoted Rolling Stone contributing editor Rob Sheffield reflecting on how the band began: “They were sort of assigned to be together. And you don’t expect longevity out of that situation. Honestly, you don’t even expect one good pop record to come out of that situation.” Sheffield’s retrospective view was that they went on to create “a new template for pop stardom, really.”
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What happened after the competition
Zayn Malik left in 2015, ITV reports. The remaining members continued as a four-piece, released Made in the A.M., and later announced an indefinite hiatus. The formation clip captures the judges’ initial decision-making; it does not tell the later story of the band’s career or prove that its eventual success was predictable at the time.
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