Dermot O’Leary found it "difficult" boarding a flight home with contestants who were unsuccessful at the judges’ houses.
The 43-year-old presenter, who is on hand to console and celebrate with the shows contestants after their performances, has admitted the worst part of the judges houses is when all of the talent have to travel home together, because you can feel "a sense of loss" for those who didn’t make it to the live stage.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper’s TV magazine about the aftermath at Louis Walsh’s house in Ibiza, Spain, which saw him whittle his groups down, he said: "I speak to the contestants before they go to sing for Louis, Alesha and Fleur – I just give them a little pep talk – and then I’m there to put an arm round them afterwards. There’s not much I can do at this stage in the competition. It’s tough.
"Louis has made his deliberations and now we need to tell the contestants who’s going through. It’s the toughest part as you know half of them are going home unhappy."
"Louis breaks the bad and good news to the contestants and then they come straight round to me. One of the groups tries to bundle me while they are celebrating, but they miss and land on each other instead!
"That’s it for Ibiza, but things are difficult as we’re all on the same flight home,
"So there are four groups who have been told they’re out. There’s a sense of loss for them, and elation for the ones who got through."
Dermot – who previously hosted the show for eight years before being replaced by Caroline Flack and Olly Murs last year, to return again for this series – has admitted during the three days he was in Ibiza with Louis he had to "refresh" his memory on the contestants’ stories so far.
He explained: "I start doing my prep and refresh my memory on what the contestants have done so far. Then we film loads of links – it’s best to get them in the bag now so we can forget about them when the contestants perform."
Dermot O’Leary finds it ‘difficult’ travelling home with the unsuccessful contestants
