The Saturday night show that brought us Little Mix, Olly Murs and One Direction has been axed after 17 years.

Simon Cowell has pulled the plug on singing competition The X Factor with ITV confirming it has 'no current plans' for the contest to return.

The show first aired in 2004 and was last on our screens in 2018. Over the years it has hosted some incredible talent from Kent including Matt Terry, from Bromley, who won the show in 2016.

His family home is in Sutton Road, Maidstone, and his debut single, When Christmas Comes Around, peaked at number three on the UK Singles Chart.

Josh Zaré from band Kingsland Road is also from Maidstone, and 2013 winner Sam Bailey was a former Dartford College student.

In 2006, third place went to Ben Mills, from Whitstable, and Freddy Parker, from Ashford, competed in Series 13 as part of the Boys category mentored by Nicole Scherzinger.

Tenuous perhaps but the first-ever contest winner, Steve Brookstein, was often seen at Maidstone's Pizza Express.

Charlie George, 24, and 27-year-old Parisa Tarjomani, from Ramsgate, made up half of pop band Only the Young.

They entered the eleventh series in 2014 and made it to the live shows before finishing in seventh place.

After hearing the show that played a huge part of their lives would not be returning, Charlie said: "It's a shock because it's one of those shows that has been running for such a long time.

"It seems bizarre that it would ever stop but I think it’s getting increasingly hard to top the talent year-on-year because everyone has always got to be bigger and better."

Parisa added: "So many people have grown up with the show over the past few decades. It will be missed because there was always lots of fun and laughter and some great people came out of it too."

At the time, Charlie was just 16 years old. Speaking of his 'whirlwind experience', he said: "It was shell-shocking for all of us to have been thrust into a position like that.

"You don’t understand what you’re doing at the time, you just turn off to it. I have so many memories because we did so many things and I look back now and think wait, we met David Guetta and Taylor Swift.

"Then we played at Capital's Summertime Ball at Wembley Stadium and we walked past the likes of Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber. There's nothing else like it, it’s otherworldly."

Parisa added: "Although it was a while ago, whenever it’s talked about I sit and think 'wow I was a part of that'.

"We had 4am wake up calls most days. We were in the car, in the studio, and not getting back until 10pm or 11pm on repeat for a week.

"I will never forget we were sat with all the 1D boys just watching rehearsals and at the time you don’t think anything of it."

Only the Young went on to have their own headline shows, and released their debut album in 2017.

But despite their success, the pair say one thing it taught them was to be realistic about the industry.

Having taken a break from music, the pair are still regularly in the studio recording and writing new material.

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