Simon Cowell says there’s no point comparing The X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing ratings
The media mogul says The X Factor's audience is much younger than Strictly's and is confident this season will be a hit
Ask Simon Cowell for his verdict on last year’s X Factor and it’s not the five-star rating you might have expected to hear from The Boss.
“I thought it was okay,” he says. “It was time to freshen things up.”
And freshen it up he has. As the show goes all-out to prove it’s still worthy of a place in the nation’s hearts, it’s bye-bye stuffy conference centres for the first-round auditions, and hello Thorpe Park as this year’s hopefuls prepare to do their best (and worst) against a backdrop of big dippers and roller coasters.
“It’s a whole new vibe to X Factor,” says Louis Walsh. “It’s like a new TV show. Honestly, it’s got a new lease of life.”
“We had a good time in Thorpe Park,” agrees Nicole Scherzinger.
“I’m so glad we did that. Simon is always in work mode. He’s always trying to think what could be better for the show, but he got to be a kid at Thorpe Park.
"I made him and Louis go on the rides with me and I was proud of them. I have the greatest picture ever of us going down a waterfall in this log. Louis looks like he wants to throw up!”
In fact, Simon enjoyed himself so much that he even crashed a golf buggy he was driving around in with the other judges as they went on the hunt for more doughnuts.
“Ah yes, I’d forgotten about that,” laughs Simon, 57. “That was a laugh, driving around in golf buggies and eating doughnuts. I’m obviously not a very good driver.”
“Simon’s a very good driver,” says Sharon Osbourne, with a wicked twinkle in her eye.
“He only crashed into two things!”
Thankfully for the show’s insurance premiums, it wasn’t Simon running amok that accounted for Sharon having to be stretchered off when auditions moved to Edinburgh and Alesha Dixon was brought in as a substitute judge.
“I’d had an operation on my back but I was still in terrible pain, so I had to see my surgeon again while we were doing the auditions,” explains Sharon, 64.
“I had an epidural where they put you out and then they inject the area that’s damaged.
"One morning I woke up and my back had kind of spasmed. I literally got up, called Simon, then got on a plane to Los Angeles. But I’m feeling 100 per cent now and it worked perfectly with Alesha.”
Was Louis, her partner-in-crime on the show, tempted to tease her that Alesha might be so good a stand-in Sharon need not come back?
“He knows better than that,” laughs Sharon.
As ever, Louis does have plenty of ideas about how the show can be improved and he’s never afraid to share them...
Simon shakes his head.
“When Louis wasn’t on the show [in 2015] he would phone me every week screaming about how much he hated it,” he says. “But now he’s back he’s happy again.”
“They can’t get rid of me now,” crows Louis, 65, who will mentor the Boys category.
“I’m like Judge Judy. I’m the oldest judge on TV. And this year is my best chance in a long time to win.”
So if not Alesha replacing Sharon, who would Louis like to see as a guest judge to ruffle a few feathers?
“Elton John,” he says, without hesitation. “Elton would be brilliant and funny and bitchy. He’d have an opinion on everything – and he loves music. I think he would be amazing. But he kind of makes fun of the show... even though I think he secretly watches it.”
“Alesha was brilliant, brilliant, brilliant,” adds Simon, who will mentor the Groups.
“She really enjoyed it, was very good and because I know her so well it was easy.”
How quickly was fellow BGT judge David Walliams on the phone to Simon asking to replace Louis if anything happened to him?
“His number is blocked so I don’t know,” he grins. “I just block it for six months. It’s easier.”
It’s not just the locations that have changed this year. After enduring one too many interminable auditions, Simon has decreed that there should be a stopwatch placed on all contestants.
“Once you go over 10 minutes you realise this has been going on way too long,” says Simon.
“So having a timer did help. We got through many more contestants. They can see it. I made them aware of it. There was one audition, oh God, I think they sang five songs.
"They would not leave until they got a yes. I said to them: ‘Look at the timer. You’ve been here nearly 30 minutes.’ I try to be fair but you’re only human, and there are moments when you do lose it.”
The most controversial contestant on last year’s show was Honey G, mentored by Sharon in her Overs category. When Honey – real name Anna Georgette Gilford – recently revealed she was gay with a nude photo shoot in The Sun, she recognised how supportive her mentor had been.
“Good for her,” says Sharon, who will mentor the Girls. “I’m glad she’s come out and said who she is. I’m very proud of that. I would have told her: ‘Don’t do the pictures.’ But anyway, she did and I’m sure she feels free now, so that’s good.”
This year, it’s not a contestant who’s been berated for their singing, though – it was Nicole copping it from Simon’s three-year-old son Eric.
“Yeah, he told her to shut up,” chuckles Simon.
“I’m in Moana,” says Nicole, 39, who voices Sina in the Disney film, “and I know Eric likes things like The Lion King, so I was singing to him, but I don’t think I got a chair [as in the Six Chair Challenge] from Eric. He’s so cute, though. He’s a little man.”
“He has an unbelievable memory for words,” shares Simon. “He knows more about lyrics than I do. He’s like a jukebox. I tell him a song and he sings it and does these weird dances too. He’s really, really into music. He’s got a good ear.”
Do his talents come from Dad or mum Lauren?
“Mum,” grins Simon. “But hopefully he can be on my side of the desk as well.”
It’s not only Nicole who’s had the Mickey taken out of her this series. Dermot O’Leary is back again and Simon has been thrilled to learn that the host has his own make-up range.
“Dermot’s great,” says Simon, “but I have been taking the p*** out of his make-up range. It’s in Marks & Spencer – see, now I’m plugging it for him! It’s called 24. It’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen. Honest to God.”
Will Simon be wearing it?
“No,” he says. “Although I’ve told him I will.”
And even the big boss can’t escape a ribbing with Louis around.
“I’m better turned out than him,” says Louis, when TV Magazine asks whether he or Simon would win in the style stakes. “Anyone’s better than him. He’s always wearing the same thing. I didn’t even know flares were back?! But we wouldn’t want him to change. That’s his look.”
As all the banter draws to a close, there’s just time to raise the spectre of that age-old enemy of the show over on BBC1.
Could this be X Factor’s year to close the ratings gap now that Strictly has lost head judge Len Goodman?
“I’ve learnt to keep my mouth shut about that,” smiles Simon.
“We can’t compete with their overall audience because they’re much older. What’s important for us is to keep the young audience interested in the show.
“I’ve seen a couple of contestants this year who are really, really good. You’re always hoping to find the next star and that’s what I’m focusing on now.”
NEW! The X Factor Saturday 8pm ITV
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