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Cowell and co. tell MARION McMULLEN they’re eager to see whether celebs can stand up to the limelight as singers. If you’re looking for can’t-miss television...
SIMON COWELL, Louis Walsh and former Pussycat Doll Nicole Scherzinger are always looking for the next big singing star, but can a Strictly Come Dancing professional, an American talk show host and a TV news journalist prove they have the X Factor?
BBC journalist Martin Bashir and actress and talk show host Ricki Lake are among those taking part in the revamped celebrity edition of the singing contest, while dancer Brendan Cole has switched from the BBC to ITV to appear in the show.
Presenter Dermot O’Leary says even the biggest stars taking part in The X Factor: Celebrity were “terrified” by the challenge of singing for Simon Cowell and his fellow judges.
“This is the first time they’ve auditioned, and I think you can never underestimate that,” says Dermot, who has presented all but one series of The X Factor since 2007.
“With these guys, yeah sure, they have experience on the telly, but even the most seasoned performers walked out on that stage and told me afterwards they were terrified. You walk out and suddenly there’s a 100 hundred people staring back at you. It’s intense.”
Fifteen celebrities have signed up for the series, including former The Only Way Is Essex star Megan McKenna, The Chase’s Jenny Ryan, Love Island’s Wes Nelson, Zara McDermott, Eyal Brooker and Samira Might, former Corrie star Victoria Ekanoye, David Hasselhoff’s daughter Hayley and ex-EastEnder Jonny Labey.
The celebrity hopefuls will be battling it out to secure a place in the live shows in London and ultimately win a record deal.
Professional rugby players Thom Evans, Ben Foden and Levi Davis make up the group Try Star and Brendan Cole joins forces with Holby City actor Jeremy Edwards.
You may think you know the celebrities, but prepare to be surprised as they leave behind what made them famous and try singing instead.
Simon Cowell says it was “so obvious” that the hit ITV show needed to be revamped after the last series of The X Factor saw overnight audience figures plummet to some of their lowest in its 15-year history, while rival show Strictly Come Dancing continued to flourish on BBC1.
Simon, who celebrated his 60th birthday on Monday, said the franchise risked stagnating if it did not reinvent itself.
“I think change in any aspect is good, but I was saying to someone the other day, ‘I’ve signed Westlife, I’ve signed Five, Il Divo, One Direction, Little Mix. They’re all groups, but they’re all different’.
“Sometimes you’ve got to take a break of at least a year, two years, between signing one kind of group and then launching another.
“It’s the same with The X Factor. You can’t just keep making the same show that it was 14 years ago and expect it to be the same show today. You’ve got to take a step back for a little while.”
Simon says he also kept himself in the dark about the line-up until the first performances. “It just felt so obvious to do a celebrity version,” he points out.
“The only condition was I couldn’t know who was going to be on it.
“I said to the team, ‘You’ve got to find some acts who you believe can sell records... because if you don’t do that it won’t work.’
“I did walk away thinking, ‘If we’re smart, we have artists here who could actually sell records off the back of this’. So, I thought that was fun and very exciting for the show.’”
Martin Bashir, who famously interviewed Princess Diana, says he used to do most of his singing to a 90s classic in the car much to his children’s irritation: “Some years back, whenever we were driving long distances, I would put a song by Will Smith called Gettin’ Jiggy With It on to the CD player and start singing. “And they’d say ‘Please, mum, tell him to shut up’. I think they found it embarrassing.”
So will the 56-year-old be embarrassing his children on national television? “It depends how embarrassing the performance is. If it’s an absolute disaster and I go out in the first round, they will probably say something like ‘You’re stupid. You should never have done it.’”
Brendan Cole was known for being vocal about judges’ criticism when he was on Strictly. So how will he fare when it’s his singing being judges?
He says: “If the judges have got critique, then I’ll have to suck it up – even if I disagree with it.”
Megan McKenna meanwhile, appears to be hoping for big things from appearing on the show and says: “Wow! Could this be my time? I really respect Simon and I would love to work with him.”
As for veteran judge Louis Walsh, he is looking forward to being back on the judging panel, but says Simon is now like a new person after the music mogul’s recent dramatic weight loss.
“He’s funny, he’s looking great, and I love Nicole,” says Louis. “The three of us just sit there, we have fun.
X Factor: Celebrity will be repeated tomorrow at 2.10pm
Even the most seasoned performers walked out on that stage and told me afterwards they were terrified...
Dermot O’Leary on how the celebrities dealt with X Factor nerves