Hosted by KC Concepcion, it aired on the network's Yes Weekend evening lineup from June 23 to October 14, 2012, replacing Pinoy Big Brother: Teen Edition 4.

The show is primarily concerned with identifying singing talent, though appearance, personality, stage presence and dance routines are also an important element of many performances.

After waiting at the venue for hours and filming more inserts of screaming and waving, candidates are given a brief audition by someone from the production team.

Should they pass that producers' auditions (either for reasons of talent or for the potential of making entertaining television), they are given a "go signal" that allows them to sing in front of the judges and of the live audience.

The televised version misrepresents the process by implying that the entire huge crowds all perform to the judges.

The judges' auditions are held in front of a live audience and the acts sing over a backing track.

The contestants selected at auditions are further refined through a series of performances at "bootcamp", and then at the "judges' houses", until a small number eventually progress to the live finals (twelve in season 1).

The finals consist of a series of two live shows, the first featuring the contestants' performances and the second revealing the results of the public voting, culminating in one or more acts being eliminated.

Heated disagreements, usually involving judges defending their contestants against criticism, are a regular feature of the show.

Once the number of contestants has been reduced to three (season 1), these acts go on to appear in the grand final which decides the overall winner by public vote.

The winner of The X Factor Philippines is awarded a recording contract and a cash prize of 4 million pesos.

[7] ABS-CBN continued to advertise the show with its short commercials which displayed the text "the country's biggest and grandest music event of the year"[8] as the first winner will be awarded with a 4 million peso recording contract.

Television ratings for The X Factor Philippines on ABS-CBN are gathered from two major sources, namely from AGB Nielsen and Kantar Media.