Popular contestant Matt Cardle was crowned the winner of this year’s X Factor final, and he will now be able to look forward to a £1M contract (with Simon Cowell’s Syco Music label) with all the endorsements and bonuses that come with it, and although he will no doubt be in a prime position to be the highest earner from this year’s finalists, it seems that many of the most popular acts could be coming away with the lucrative contracts.

Although the million-pound contract is generally reserved for the winner of the show, Simon Cowell has suggested that the final four contestants this series, which were Rebecca Ferguson, Cher Lloyd, and boyband One Direction - as well as winner Cardle, and 5th-place Mary Byrne - could all take up a contract of similar value.

Cowell is said to be impressed at the quality of performers on this year’s series quoting before the final: “I haven’t made a decision yet on whether I will give all finalists a record deal. The only person who is guaranteed one is the winner. But it is definitely a possibility. I will just have to see how they perform on Saturday. Seriously.”

Former supermarket worker Mary Byrne, aged 56, is said to be already signed up by Sony, parent company of Syco, to record a release next year. She could prove to be one of the lowest-ranked contestants to be signed on by a major label after the show, with Syco usually only interested in the winner (automatic), and the runner-up, with acts such as Olly Murs and Rhydian Roberts previous beneficiaries of such moves. Sometimes, these ‘lucky losers’ will go on to do better than acts that win the show, such as series 1 winner Steve Brookstein, who has lost much of his popularity in the 6 years since his triumph, and was seen performing to a handful of people in a coffee shop last weekend, while the show that gave him his brief success drew almost 20M viewers, a new record (and 55% of the UK TV audience at the time) the next night.

Syco are getting straight down to business with an annual mission, though, in their attempts to sell the X Factor winner’s single at the coveted Christmas #1 slot in the charts, despite increased public campaigning to get novelty tracks in that place as a protest. This year it will be Matt Cardle performing “When We Collide”, with a video of his performance of it on the show below:

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