Simon Cowell has clarified reports surround his plans for The X Factor this year.
Earlier this week, it was reported that Simon had “axed” his long-running TV talent search in its traditional format, and hoped to overhaul the whole thing with a celebrity edition.
Although he’s yet to reveal exactly what he has in the works, Simon has since spoken to The Sun to “clear up any myths”.
He told the newspaper: “I’ve had a meeting with ITV, I’ve told them what I think we’d like to do with X Factor because we’ve been waiting to have this opportunity.
“The time feels right, and it will be a huge change. We haven’t exactly confirmed the dates or the order of the shows, but essentially there are going to be two versions of X Factor running this year.”
Revealing he’s now feeling “the best he’s felt about the show in years”, Simon continued: “I would never want to sit and watch a show like The X Factor slowly fade away and fail but there is only one risk and that’s doing nothing. That is what I call a risk.”
The Sun has claimed these two series will be the aforementioned “celebrity” series, as well as an all-star series which will see former contestants returning to the competition, though this remains unconfirmed.
Simon has recently enjoyed success with America’s Got Talent: The Champions, which featured the return of Got Talent contestants from around the world, including Susan Boyle, Lost Voice Guy and original winner Paul Potts.
Off the back of this, he has also said he will run an all-star edition of Britains Got Talent too, which The Sun says will run in addition to a regular series later this year.
X Factor previously ran a short celebrity version back in 2006, which featured Paul Daniels and Debbie McGee, Gillian McKeith, Rebecca Loos and eventual winner Lucy Benjamin, though Simon said shortly afterwards that he hadn’t been happy with how the series panned out.