Simon Cowell has confirmed the judging line-up for the 2017 series of ‘The X Factor’ will be the same as 2016’s panel.
The 57-year-old music mogul – the boss of the pop star search show – has announced that Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh, Nicole Scherzinger and himself will all be returning this year.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper on Wednesday (12.04.17), Simon made the announcement ahead of the judges’ auditions for the ITV reality show which take place later this year.
He said: "I don’t think for the moment we’d want to make any changes. It worked on ‘X Factor’ last year and the ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ panel works really well.
"There’s always room to come up with new ideas for shows but you’ve got to look at the whole landscape.
"It’s a crowded market but there’s always room for something new if it’s a good idea."
The news will be well received by fans as speculation was rife that Sharon might step away from the show after she suffered a back injury, while Nicole, who replaced Rita Ora last year and saw her act Matt Terry be crowned the 2016 ‘X Factor’ winner, is planning a return to music which could have meant she was not free to sit on the panel.
Louis made a return to the panel in 2016 after he was replaced the previous year by Radio One DJ Nick Grimshaw.
Simon also confirmed that he has no plans to change the judging panel of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ either – with Amanda Holden, David Walliams and Alesha Dixon each keeping their seats behind the buzzers, along with hosts Ant and Dec.
‘Britain’s Got Talent’ returns on ITV on Saturday night (15.04.17).
X Factor judges to stay the same
