The Uraps Factor (Series 2)

The Uraps Factor is a British television music competition to find new singing talent. The second series began airing on ITV in January 2013. Promotion for the second season began on 12 December 2012. There were several changes to the judge and hosting line-up, in order to increase viewers further. Brett Clarkson, Candi and James Moss all returned for a second season as judges, however Kleo was brought in to replace Stacy Hart from the previous year. Chase Elite and Crystal Barker were also hired as new presenters, replacing Paolo from Dante and Sara from INTOXICATED who presented the first series. Ruby and the Gems acted as a judge on Week 7, covering for Kleo who was ill.

Moss mentored the over 28s, Pledger had the boys, Elite mentored the groups and Clarkson had the boys. They selected their final four acts during judges' houses, which took place in Hollywood, Saint Lucia, Dublin and Magaluf. The 16 finalists were joined by a 17th wildcard, voted for by the public after each judge picked one of their rejected to return. The live shows started on 19 January.

Judges and presenters
On 12 December 2012, a statement for Uraps Factor published, stating: "After an explosive first season, which saw Candi bring Pandora and the girls category to the winner's podium, Uraps Factor is back to find the next big star. We've seen last year's winner and runner-up Pandora and Aimee Stevens enjoy chart success. Other acts have also achieved massive success with Calvin Hawthorne having a #1 album and Jetfire getting a #1 single. And it's time for 2013's stars to arrive. The Uraps Factor will be returning in January, with changes to the judging panel and presenting duo, it promises to be even bigger and better than last year!"

On 19 December, it was confirmed that Candi would be returning as a judge. The following day, Brett Clarkson was confirmed to be returning too. On 23 December, James Moss was confirmed to be returning too. On 27 December, it was revealed that Kleo would be joining the show as a brand new judge, replacing Stacy Hart who was removed from the panel after failing to connect with the audience the same as the other judges.

On 02 January, 2013 - a brand new advert for The Uraps Factor began airing on ITV, where it revealed Chase Elite and Crystal Barker were the show's new presenters. ITV released a statement the same day confirming this. Although producers were happy with Paolo and Sara's performance last year as presenters, they felt Barker would be able to draw in a much larger audience. Chase Elite was hired as her co-presenter due to being her partner, meaning the pair should have good chemistry on-screen. Also, as Candi's brother, he should be able to interact with the judges well.

Auditions
Auditions for The Uraps Factor were the same as last year, where they took part in front of show producers and ITV executives, with none of the four judges present. The application and audition process was carried out before the show was officially announced, with auditions taking place in late October and early November. Auditions were held across the country, in Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester, Liverpool, Cardiff and London. It beat last year's record for the number of people auditioning, creating a new record.

Bootcamp
The bootcamp round was not broadcast either, however the judges were present during this. Where as last year 24 contestants progressed beyond this stage, due to a much higher amount of auditionees this year, 28 contestants progressed to this stage, split by seven contestants in each of the four categories.

Judges' Houses
The judges house stage was first broadcast on 12 January 2013. The judges discovered which category they were mentoring during the Judges' Houses round, where they had to eliminate three of their seven acts. They were also joined by a guest judge to aid in making the decision of who to put through and who to send home. James Moss mentored the Over 25's and was helped by his partner, James Frost, from Ireland. Candi Elite mentored the groups and was assisted by Ben Johnston in St Lucia. Brett Clarkson judged the girls with his INTOXICATED partner, Charlee Brookes in Magaluf. Kleo was with the last remaining category, the boys, in Hollywood, along with her guest judge, Ashley!.

At the end of judges' houses, it was announced that each judge could bring back one further act back as a wildcard. The public then voted for which of the four wildcards would become the seventeenth finalist. This left one judge with an extra act. Pledger chose Artemis Tolkien, Elite chose Social Recall, Clarkson chose Chelsea Flowers and Moss chose Ross Tracy. Flowers was revealed as the winner on a special wildcard episode on 14 January 2013. When the voting statistics were announced at the end of the series, Flowers was revealed to have received 58.3% of the vote to return, while Social Recall received 25.0%, Tracy received 8.5% and Tolkein received 8.2%

Finalists
Main article: List of The Uraps Factor finalists (Series 2)

The final 17 finalists were confirmed as follows;

Live shows
The live shows began on 19 January. Each week, the contestants' performances took place on Saturday and the results were announced on Sunday. Each live show also had a different theme. The results show often featured a group performance by the remaining contestants and guest live performances, usually from one past Uraps Factor contestant or a judge, along with an already established act.

The first live results show included live performances from judge Candi singing her new single "Best Damn Night" as season one's winner Pandora performed her second single "Anonymous". Week 2 saw Kleo and Paulo Araujo take to the stage. Moodring and Phoenix Rising performed on Week 3. Brett Clarkson performed "Brains Out" in Week 4, making it the fourth consecutive week a judge had performed. On Week 5, Honey performed her new single, and Jetfire performed "Midnight Trail".

Results summary

 * In Week 2, James Moss refused to vote

Week 1 (19/20 January)

 * Theme: 90's music
 * Celebrity performers: Candi ("Best Damn Night"), Pandora ("Anonymous")
 * Judges' votes to eliminate
 * Moss: Charleston – Saved his own act
 * Pledger: Dustin – Saved her own act
 * Elite: Dustin – Thought Charleston deserved to stay
 * Clarkson: Dustin - Believed the competition didn't need Dustin

Week 2 (26/27 January)

 * Theme: 2010's music
 * Celebrity performers: Kleo ("Mrs D08"), Paulo Araujo ("Full Throttle"/"As I Lay Dying")
 * Judges' votes to eliminate
 * Moss: N/A - Refused to vote
 * Pledger: Terry - Saved her own act
 * Elite: Eoin - Felt Terry could go further in the competition
 * Clarkson: Eoin - Found Eoin boring

Week 3 (02/03 February)

 * Theme: Current Uraps Chart Top 40 * Airplay Top 40
 * Celebrity performers: Moodring ("Spaceman"), Phoenix Rising ("Space Cowboy")
 * Judges' votes to eliminate
 * Elite: Alyssa - Saved her own act
 * Clarkson: Diamante - Saved his own act
 * Moss: Alyssa - Believed Diamante had more too often
 * Pledger: Diamante - Felt Alyssa's performance was better

Week 4 (09/10 February)

 * Theme: Best of British
 * Celebrity performers: Brett Clarkson ("Brains Out")
 * Clarkson: Matt - Saved his own act
 * Moss: Matt - Went with his gut (voted out own act)
 * Pledger: Jade - See's Matt having a better career
 * Elite: Jade - Felt Matt has more to give

Week 5 (16/17 February)

 * Theme: Gender Swap
 * Celebrity performers: Honey ("Pop This Bitch"), Jetfire ("Midnight Trail")
 * Elite: Deidrea - Saved her own act
 * Moss: Kimono - Saved his own act
 * Pledger: Kimono - Gave no reason
 * Clarkson: Deidrea - Decided to send it to deadlock

Week 6 (24/25 February)

 * Due to Urapopstar Awards 23, the show and its subsequent results aired a day late, on Sunday and Monday respectively
 * Theme: Songs from Movies
 * Celebrity performers: Ashley! and Aimee Stevens("We've Got A Problem")
 * Moss: Malaya - Saved his own act
 * Clarkson: Matt - Saved his own act
 * Elite: Malaya - felt Malaya lacked identity as an artist
 * Pledger: Matt - felt Matt didn't evolve in the competition

Week 7 (02/03 March)

 * Theme: Songs from the World (None UK/US artists)
 * Celebrity performers: Nicholas X and Vixen ("Glass"), Aimee Lyons and Angelie ("Dance Explosion")
 * Pledger: Chelsea - Connected more with Raquel
 * Elite: Raquel - Connected more with Chelsea
 * Moss: Chelsea - Thought Raquel had improved most
 * Clarkson: Raquel - Decided to send vote to deadlock

Week 8 (09/10 March)

 * Theme: Debut singles
 * Celebrity performers: L.E.X. ("Medicine Man")
 * Clarkson: Indigo - Saved his own act
 * Elite: Alyssa - Saved her own act
 * Moss: Indigo - Thought Alyssa had improved more
 * Pledger: Alyssa - Thought Indigo Indigo had improved more

Week 9 (16/17 March)
The quarter-final did not feature a final showdown and instead the act with the fewest public votes, were automatically eliminated.
 * Theme: Musical Heroes & Songs by a judge
 * Celebrity performers: TBA

Week 10 (23/24 March)
The semi-final did not feature a final showdown and instead the act with the fewest public votes, were automatically eliminated.
 * Theme: Song chosen by contestant & Song chosen by judge
 * Celebrity performers: TBA

Saturday Final

 * Theme: Live Final (Saturday Night). First song: Best performance of series, second performance: Celebrity duet
 * Celebrity performers: Cassie Diamond, Eoin O'Neill, Paulo Araujo

Sunday Final

 * Theme: Winner's Single

Controversy
As with the previous series, the show has managed to attract mass media attention. The first controversy was over judge Clarkson's decission to not put contestant Chelsea Flowers through to the live shows, despite the fact she was regarded as the best singer in his category. Due to the fact he voted through the sexiest girls, many criticised his judging technique, however Flowers was voted through as the wildcard and the attention died down.

There has been quite a large amount of controversy surrounding judge James Moss this series. In Week 2, Eoin O'Neill and Terry Harper were in the bottom two, where Moss refused to vote, despite the fact Harper was in his category and O'Neill was not. The media and fans of the show criticsed Moss for his lack of loyalty towards his acts, as this had happened the previous year when Moss voted out one of his own acts. Also, in Week 1 Dustin Anderson was eliminated in 16th place. Several days before the airing of Week 3, it was revealed Anderson had overdosed and killed him, due to missing out on "his final chance to become a star". Moss became quite clearly traumatised by this, especially during the week 3 Saturday show, where he stormed off set crying, and heavily criticsed several of his own acts, a first for the show. Further controversy surrounding Moss occured in week 4, when Jade Santiago and Matt West were placed in the bottom two. Despite the fact West was in Moss's category, and Santiago was mentored by Brett Clarkson, Moss decided to vote his own act again. This marks the third time Moss has done this (Series 1, Week 3 he voted out Kimono and Series 2 and Week 2 he refused to vote to save his own act prior to this occurance). This event caused a massive backlash for the show and for Moss, with many fans of the show calling for his sacking.

Success after the show

 * Winner Malaya Gold released her winners single "Power To Heal" which charted at #2. Since then she has achieved several number ones.
 * Runner-up Chelsea Flowers appeared on a track on one of Iris' album.
 * 4th place Justyce has scored several number ones singles and albums.
 * 6th place Alyssa Monroe has released two singles, including one #1.
 * Sakura Kimura from 10th place girlgroup Kimono featured on a top ten single with "Babycakes".
 * 14th place Eoin O'Neill has scored numerous number one singles and albums.

This season of The Uraps Factor is regarded by many as one of the most successful seasons of any reality competition ever on Uraps, due to finding Malaya, Justyce and Eoin O'Neill who have all gone on to have enormous success.