Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger will be aided by industry experts on ‘The X Factor: The Band’.
The pair will be the only judges on the new talent show – which will begin next month following ‘The X Factor: Celebrity’, which also features Louis Walsh as a panellist – and they are expected to dish out no-nonsense views on contestants.
A source told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre TV column: "Simon and Nicole are already winding each other up about who’ll pick the best band and the judges won’t hold back with their opinions during the auditions.
"It will be like a throwback to the old days where they’ll say what they really think – even if it comes across as harsh. There won’t be any time for wasters."
The show will begin on December 9th and the final will air on December 15th.
It will see individual acts put together to form groups.
Earlier this month,Simon insisted he doesn’t have a "grudge" against Little Mix but admitted he brought ‘The X Factor: The Band’ forward so the programme would air ahead of their talent show ‘The Search’, which will look for a new group.
The music mogul had always planned to launch a groups-centred programme in the UK after previously doing so in the US, but admits he didn’t want the girl band – who won ‘The X Factor’ in 2011 – to get there before him.
He said: "With music, radio, TV – sometimes you just have to do something quick.
"The truth is I have a group show which I launched in America, I think four or five years ago.
"We’ve always decided to do a group show in the UK so we’d agreed with ITV that we were going to do ‘X Factor Groups’ in 2020.
"So that was all fine and then we were going to do the ‘All Stars’ version this year, and then when we found out that the Little Mix show was going go out in 2020.
"I didn’t want to follow that show since we’d already planned it years ago.
"I thought, ‘Well, we’ll just bring it forward. Simple as that.’
"And it wasn’t like some grudge against Little Mix or whatever because you know I owe those girls a lot.
"Even though we gave them a launch pad, they sold a lot of records.
"I thought their idea was a great idea. Sometimes you want to be the first one to do it in a certain country."
Simon has also insisted the normal series of ‘The X Factor’ will definitely return at some point, after he gave the programme a rest this year.
He added: "That will come back."
Simon Cowell and Nicole Scherzinger ‘to be only X Factor The Band judges’
