More than 10 million people watched last night’s X Factor 2008 series première - a million more than for the same episode last year.

Amongst the highlights last night were Nikk, a previous contestant on the Popstars: The Rivals, the show which launched judge Cheryl Cole to fame.

Boy band JLS also impressed with their performance which you can see below:

Get ready for a double helping of The X Factor tomorrow as we see that the auditions have come to a close and the boot camp sessions begin. Rumour has it that, apart from seeing the auditionees trying to make a good impression in their first days at boot camp, we also get to see Dermot O’Leary break down in tears as he interviews a primary school teacher!

You can catch the first X Factor episode at 6.05 and the second installment at 8.30pm on ITV1

When X Factor auditionee Jacqui Gray went up in front of the X Factor judges to sing , she didn’t quite get the response she had hoped for. After singing “Something Inside So Strong” the judges responded by telling her that she sounded like she was “choking”, “raspy”, and “odd sounding”. Simon even went as far as to say: “Something happens to your voice when you sing. It sounds like you have someone else in there, like you are choking on something.”

Judge Sharon Osbourne urged Jacqui to go and get it checked out, and after a quick trip to the doctors and a consultant, a hospital scan revealed a serious lung condition which was in need of immediate treatment.

Jacqui said: “I want to thank Simon and Sharon. I may not have got through the ‘X Factor’ but they both gave me something much more important than that. They really did save my life. I have been singing since I was a kid but no-one had ever pointed out a problem to me before.

27 year old Ben Mills, who was the third place runner up in last year’s X Factor, has reportedly turned down an offer to return with a guest appearance to this years X Factor show, because he doesn’t think it will do him any favours. Ben, who is currently signed to SonyBMG and is working on his second album said:

“I’m still in touch with people who work on ‘X Factor’. They have been in touch and said do you wanna come on and do some stuff. But to be totally honest I’m really trying to sidestep anything to do with the ‘X Factor’ now because I don’t think it’s going to do me any favours.”