“You’ve got 3 minutes to change your life”. This is the sentence that Simon Cowell used as words of encouragement to contestants of television singing contest, X Factor. With its title referring to star quality that you can’t quite put your finger on, the show vows to take ordinary, everyday people to the top of the music industry.  For every rare appearance of a competitor praised as a superstar-in-the-making, there were thousands of wannabes who were mocked, ridiculed, and in some cases, had their entire lives defined by an unsuccessful audition. But it was the show itself that would end up facing the most scrutiny. While allegations of everything from manipulative editing, to fixing of votes would begin to fly like wildfire, X Factor’s demise would ultimately boil down to its power to change someone’s life in just 3 minutes - for better or for worse… This episode was written by Rory Boyle This is a Broccoli Prodction  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices