The X Factor

Many X Factor viewers know Simon Cowell as The X Factor’s sharp-tongued and uninhibited criticizer-in-chief, but it turns out that he’s a skilled sniper on rumors as well. In an interview with Terri Seymour (his ex-girlfriend...awkward much?) on the entertainment show Extra, Simon took a verbal Uzi to all the murmurs running up and down the “who will judge The X Factor” grapevine.

First there’s Beyoncé, who we heard was offered a hundred million dollars a year for a five-year X Factor contract. “I have no idea where this rumour [sic] came from,” Cowell fumed. “It’s complete nonsense. … And I genuinely haven’t had a conversation with her about it. I swear to God. No.”

Cowell was a little less vehement about Mariah Carey, but he nonetheless made rags out of that rumor, too. “... I don’t think Mariah would make that commitment,” Cowell elaborated. “She’s just had kids... You have to work five days a week on this show and you’ve got to do all this travelling [sic] as well. So, just to put it out there, she will not be on the list.”

From there, Cowell proceeded to bust out his trademark zingers on a host of potential judges. Elton John “would be really difficult to work with,” Madonna would be “lippy” and “expensive,” and Katy Perry would be “fun” but “hard.”

At the end of the day, Cowell appears not to be too worried about who will fill all those empty seats. Indeed, the last thing he wants to do is get into a one-upping war with American Idol when it comes to the judges’ celebrity. That, Cowell warned, is how you “lose focus on what the show is all about[.]” After all, “at the end of the day the most important thing is the contestants[,] and I want to put all my resources into finding stars from the show.”

So who’s going to be judging the second season of The X Factor USA? So far, unless Simon’s being coy... well, uh, we’ve got Cowell himself and L.A. Reid.  And that’s it.

Source: Daily Mail

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