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My almighty X Factor calamity
Olly Murs on Simon Cowell, the live TV blooper that haunts him – and his sexual chemistry with co-host Caroline Flack
As he points out himself, Olly Murs is a ‘pop-star/ TV presenter who’s been doing the job for five minutes’. Some would argue his inexperience showed a couple of weeks ago when he made a monumental blooper (his own language is more colourful) at the helm of The X Factor.
Olly – who first found fame as a contestant on the show in 2009 and is now its co-presenter – got muddled up, live on air, during the high-tension eviction segment. When the judges couldn’t decide between Monica Michael and Anton Stephans in the sing-off, instead of telling Monica that her future was in doubt and she would be going to ‘deadlock’ with her fate to be decided by the public vote, he announced that she was going home. Cue panic in the production gallery, his co-host Caroline Flack having to leap in to point out his mistake, and red faces all round.
When it turned out that Monica was leaving the show, an almighty shout of ‘ fix!’ was heard on social media. It’s hard not to feel sorry for Olly as he explains what happened. He’s at pains to point out that he’s not a trained TV presenter ‘with years of experience behind me’. He paints himself, frankly, as the work experience kid in a nuclear power station who accidentally presses the wrong button. ‘ I mean, I’ve made mistakes before. I’ve fallen over on stage. I’ve forgotten my lyrics. But this was different. It was a pivotal moment and I just got confused about what was happening next. I said the wrong words to Simon and I just lost the plot and said, “OK Monica, I’m so sad to see you go” when I should have said, “We’re going to deadlock.” In my earpiece I was being told by the production team I’d made a mistake – but they didn’t say what the mistake was. I was completely – what’s the word? – confused.’
Oh dear. One could argue that if the show’s presenter gets confused about the show’s format then the format is too complicated. Olly doesn’t seem to have considered this. His head is in his hands, and he’s still beating himself up over it. He apologised after the show on Twitter, using the same word – ‘Plonker!’ – that his mum had used when she called him immediately afterwards. ‘She said, “You plonker! What were you thinking?” But then when the whole storm blew up she became quite defensive of me. I mean the reaction was a bit much.’
Now that the dust’s settled (and, crucially, that Simon Cowell has told him, ‘It’s OK Olly, you’re only human’, rather than ‘You’re fired!’), he’s actually pretty livid that he got such grief. As he points out, his ‘silly mistake’ came as the world was reeling from the Paris terror attacks. ‘I mean, with everything that was happening, what I did was small in comparison. But people on Twitter were outraged, saying, “He should be sacked, he’s rubbish.” By the end of it I wanted to say, “Here you go, here’s my mic, next Saturday you get up and do it.” They have no idea what sort of pressure there is on that show.’
The fact that Olly’s in the job in the first place is still astonishing. To hand the controls of a juggernaut like The X Factor to a virtual novice is quite something. He has a bemused air as he describes how he went from pop star to presenter – firstly at the helm of spin-off show The Xtra Factor with Caroline. ‘Simon called me and said they’d been auditioning people. I won’t give you names, but these were well- known young presenters. Then he said, “I want you to do it Olly.” Me – who’d never done any presenting!’ Caroline couldn’t believe it.’ With the pair replacing the experienced Dermot O’Leary on the main show, was he simply out of his league? He hits back. ‘Well, it was no secret I was learning on the job, and I think I’ve done pretty well considering. I’m sure if you look at clips of Dermot at the beginning, he wouldn’t be as slick as he was by the end. We all make mistakes. I’ve been amazed at the number of presenters who’ve Tweeted me to say, “It happens to us all” – including Dermot, Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughby.’
Whether Olly continues in the job is by no means certain. Then there’s the big question mark over the future of the programme, given that it now looks as though the BBC’s flagship talent show The Voice is on its way to ITV, home of The X Factor. Will Cowell take his show to another broadcaster? Will it be axed completely? Olly possibly isn’t the one to ask, but he does offer a spirited defence of the programme that made him. ‘ITV is ITV. They can buy whatever they want. But while The Voice is a big brand, it hasn’t produced any stars. I mean I like it, the spinning chair thing is great. But they
‘People have
no idea of the pressure on that show’
haven’t had any big hits and maybe that’s because the format isn’t working.’
He argues that whatever you say about the X Factor format, it works. With four albums – three of them chart-toppers – and four tours under his belt already, he’s proof of that. He’s just released a special edition of the last album Never Been Better which features a tour DVD and extra tracks, one of which, Kiss Me, went Top 20 last month. ‘There are people out there buying One Direction records. They’re buying Little Mix hits, they’re buying my songs,’ he says. ‘We’re X Factor successes and we’re part of the music industry, people are buying into us. The Voice has had some amazing talent over the last two or three years, but none have broken into the charts. Whether the critics like it or not, The X Factor’s still the biggest show on TV, the only one that offers that big fairytale that plucks people from obscurity and turns them into stars.’ People like him? ‘Absolutely. Someone like me who was a call centre worker giving people advice on energy bills. Tell me what other show does that. Strictly already has stars, it doesn’t create them.’
Interestingly, he points out that if The X Factor does go down the pan, it will be a ‘tragedy’ not just for wannabes, but for established artists too. ‘It’s about showcasing existing talent as well as finding new talent. Which other TV shows do people like me get to perform on these days? Maybe Graham Norton, Alan Carr, Jonathan Ross – there are only a few. There’s no Top Of The Pops any more. At least with The X Factor you have two guest performances every week, so you get a chance.’
He’s 31 now, and points out he was ‘very old’ when he signed up for the show that would change his life. Today he’s a bona fide success story, a salt-ofthe-earth Essex boy made good who hangs out with Robbie Williams and his old X Factor muckers One Direction, but still goes home to his mum for Christmas. This Christmas will be ‘odd’, he says, because he’s single. He split up with his ex, property manager Francesca Thomas, just two months ago and isn’t adapting to single life as well as you’d expect a millionaire heart-throb to adapt. ‘It’s been difficult because we were together for three years, very together. Being with her was like being in a bubble – where I’d go to get away from the madness of my world. It was a more normal world. But when that bubble bursts it bursts. When you’re with someone you put a lot of trust in them, but as a single guy you have to put your trust in other people and I don’t find that easy.’
The spl it was a ‘mutual decision’, he says, one of those break-ups that comes because a couple sits down and talks about where they go next. Down the aisle? Kids? He says he ‘wasn’t ready’ for either. ‘You get to the point in a rela-
tionship where you have to decide what that next commitment stage is. We were both quite career- driven, so...’ So you don’t want to settle down, have a family? ‘I do, but I’m not ready for it yet. I want to become a dad when I’m not touring. I want to be there every day for that child. I’m not at that place right now.’
How much fun must it be to be a single man in his position? Terrifying too though. He nods. ‘Before I was with Francesca I had single girls asking me out, and I could tell that they wanted to be in my car, or wanted to be seen with me. She was never like that. We actually kept things quiet for about seven or eight months. I liked that. I did everything I could to be a “normal” boyfriend.’
Now the rumour mill is going into
overdrive. He denies any high-profile liaisons. No, he’s not seeing his old X Factor colleague Diana Vickers. Nor is there anything going on with Caroline Flack – although he can see why that one’s an old chestnut. ‘We’re both quite flirtatious people and yes, we flirt with each other, but that’s part of the act, isn’t it? But we’re mates. We just spark off each other. We’re more like brother and sister now.’ That suggests there might have been a frisson at some point. ‘Well, if it didn’t happen three or four years ago then it isn’t going to happen now. To be honest, it would mess everything up. Say me and Caroline slept with each other, then we had an argument but still had to work together. How would that work? There’d be friction. We’d lose that flirtatious thing, that chemistry.’
Perhaps he’s more clued-up than his cheeky chappy persona suggests. He’s certainly not one of the artists you fear is going to end up in rehab. He puts this down to entering the industry relatively late. He’s thought of this often lately while watching his contemporaries One Direction struggle with the nature of fame. ‘You’ve got to think that when I met them on The X Factor I was 26 – but they were 16, 17, 18. That’s a huge difference. They did their growing up in the public eye. I didn’t, thankfully.’
He says he was a typical wayward teenager. ‘I had lads’ weekends, I
‘If Caroline and I slept together it would mess everything up’
went on 18-30 holidays, I went out when I was 17, 18, 19 and got silly drunk and did stupid things.’ In his twenties he was working in a dead-end job, in debt (‘not hugely, maybe £3,500. I had a loan and credit cards’) when he had a ‘massive reality check’. ‘I asked myself, “What am I doing?” It’s all very well going out every week and spending money but I had nothing. No savings, no house, no nice car.’
His quest to self-improve started not with The X Factor but with a period of travelling. He quit his job and saw the world. ‘I’d lived in a closed environment. I never went to London, even though it’s only an hour-and-a-half’s drive from where I lived. I just didn’t have that mentality.’ The X Factor was the breakthrough though. He didn’t actually win, Joe McElderry did, but who remembers that now? What is true is that he hurled himself into the contest 100 per cent, at considerable cost. Famously, his semi-final clashed with his twin brother Ben’s wedding day. Olly opted to skip the latter. Unsurprisingly it caused massive upset – to the point that his brother hasn’t spoken to him since. Indeed, Ben has become estranged from the whole family.
Olly gets a little defensive about the subject, saying, ‘It’s the only black mark against me.’ It’s odd though, to make such a judgement call, particularly because, as he points out himself, he could have gone to both. ‘I could have gone to the wedding but only if I hadn’t done any rehearsals for The X Factor and just pitched up on the night to sing, unprepared. That wasn’t an option, and I wouldn’t have had the career I have now if I’d done it that way. At the time my family understood. I thought my brother understood, but he obviously didn’t. For whatever reason, he’s decided he doesn’t want to be a part of our family. I couldn’t heal the rift even if I wanted to. I don’t actually know where he’s living, what job he has, how many kids he has. I heard he has a couple, but I don’t know anything for sure.’
This is most odd. It’s been openly reported that Ben is living in Chelmsford. He’s spoken in the past of wanting to make amends, but being rejected by Olly. Whatever, it’s a messy situation and Olly seems to be at the point of reconsidering whether they ever had the close relationship he thought they did. ‘I do think we have a certain sixth sense, and I always thought we were close, but I watched the film The Krays recently, and it made me think. Ronnie and Reggie had this love/hate thing. They’d do anything for each other, but at the same time they wanted to tear each other apart.’ Are there parallels? ‘I didn’t used to think so. I thought we were perfect. Obviously we weren’t. But I’ve gone past being angry. I’ve gone past hating.’
So if he could wind the clock back? ‘I’d do exactly the same. I have no regrets. I wouldn’t have the life I have today if it wasn’t for The X Factor. I owe it everything.’ Olly’s album Never Been Better (Special Edition) is out now on Sony. The X Factor, tonight, 8pm, ITV.