It's as much a part of The X Factor as the tears and the power ballads.
In what veteran fans of the talent shows will recognise as a time-honoured tradition, the stoushing between the judges has kicked off.
On their best behaviour - the X Factor judges, apart from an absent Gary Barlow, with Dermot O'Leary
As the show prepares to launch its new series on Saturday evening, we've already seen Louis Walsh take on Tulisa Contostavlos's less than stately background, calling her a chav.
Now, the Sun reports Tulisa getting back at the Irish pop manager of boybands Westlife and Boyzone, calling him irrelevant on the pop scene, and reminding fans that he hadn't had a hit quite as recently as she had:
“When was Westlife last number one? Because mine was a couple of weeks ago. Ha! Don’t give me all that ‘selling millions of records’ rubbish. Because how long ago was that?”
Tulisa also reported on a boozy night she shared with popsters One Direction, when the hit-makers led her astray, despite her best intentions. Read more here...
The two were both at today's launch of the new series, although Gary Barlow decided to give it a miss...