The upcoming 15th season of The X Factor in Italy will adopt a gender-neutral format, it has been announced.
The singing competition - created by Simon Cowell - traditionally splits contestants into categories based on both gender and age, but those groupings will be scrapped in the next season.
Instead the four members of the Italian judging panel will select three contestants each, with no requirements on gender, age or even whether the act is a solo artist or a group.
Antonella d'Errico, vp of programming at broadcaster Sky Italia, said: "We announce today the elimination - for the first time in the world in this format - of the subdivision into traditional categories.
"By eliminating the historical division into categories, X Factor not only welcomes change, but wants to make it a standard-bearer: in a world that no longer needs to make distinctions of gender or age, for us talent is a neutral noun.
"We will ask all the competitors that we will be proud to welcome on stage to bring with them the only thing they really need: their personal, unique X Factor."
The Italian version of the format celebrated last month as the runners-up on its 11th season, the rock band Maneskin, went on to be crowned winners of the Eurovision Song Contest.
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