The X Factor is an Australian television reality music competition, based on the original UK series, to find new singing talent; the winner of which receives a recording contract with record label Sony Music Australia. The second series premiered on the Seven Network on 30 August 2010 and ended on 22 November 2010. The winner was Altiyan Childs and his debut single "Somewhere in the World" was released after the final. Childs was mentored throughout by Ronan Keating, who won as mentor for the first time. The series was presented by Luke Jacobz, while spin-off show The Xtra Factor was hosted by Natalie Garonzi on 7Two. The show was originally to be hosted by actor Matthew Newton, however, he was forced to withdraw as host during production after an altercation with his former girlfriend Rachael Taylor and re-admitting himself to rehab. Natalie Imbruglia, Guy Sebastian, Ronan Keating and Kyle Sandilands joined the judging panel as replacements for former judges, Mark Holden, John Reid and Kate Ceberano.

The competition was split into several stages: auditions, bootcamp, judges' houses and live shows. Auditions took place throughout May and June 2010. After the auditions was bootcamp, where successful acts were split into four categories: Under 25 Boys, Under 25 Girls, Over 25s and Groups. Each judge was given a category to mentor and had to decide on their twelve acts after day two, and their six acts after day two. Special guest judges, including Havana Brown, Rebecca Batties, Mark Plunkett and Rai Thistlethwayte were brought in to help the judges decide their acts. Following bootcamp, was the judges' houses stage, where each of the judges reduced their six acts to three, with help from more guest judges, including Kelly Rowland, Sir Richard Branson, Boyzone, Snoop Dogg and Usher. The live shows began on 19 September 2010.