Melanie Amaro took home X Factor’s $5 million prize tonight in the finale of the singing competition’s first season. The 19-year-old was kicked off the competition and then brought back later on in the season. Following the announcement, the show’s judge and producer Simon Cowell said, “It couldn’t have been a better ending, the whole story, and the fact that everybody thinks it was something we put together for TV, me bringing her back. It wasn’t. It was a genuine mistake, the irony is she actually won.”
