On The Kelly Clarkson Show’s recent American Idol reunion, Simon Cowell revealed that he would love to work on a show with his former judge mates, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson. It turns out there is a mini-reunion afoot, as Paula will be joining the X Factor UK All Stars judges panel alongside Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh.
A source tells The Sun:
“Simon feels comfortable sitting next to her and knows they’ll have a laugh and wind each other up, which will make for electric and entertaining viewing.
“Simon has handed her a lucrative contract to ensure she’s happy and it’s worth her while financially.”
Paula was a judge on the ill fated X Factor USA for one season in 2011. And former American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe hired her as a judge for his competitive dance series, So You Think You Can Dance for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Currently, she’s performing her biggest hits in a Las Vegas residency.
Because X Factor UK has suffered from low ratings and lack of stars the past few seasons, Simon decided to shake things up this season. This season, there will be no X Factor UK that features the traditional hopeful singers vying for a record contract. Instead, there will be two versions of the show. X Factor All Stars and X Factor: Celebrity.
X Factor All Stars features former X Factor contestants. Rumored to appear on the show, according to the Sun, are Alexandra Burke (winner 2008), Shayne Ward (winner 2005), Leona Lewis (winner 2006), Stevi Ritchie (2014) and joke acts Wagner,and Honey G.
X Factor: Celebrity, which is filming now features your usual round up of C list celebrities. Nicole Scherzinger sits on that judges panel, alongside Simon and Louis. The “celebrities” scheduled to compete include, Glee’s Kevin McHale, Hairspray’s Ricki Lake, Journalist Martin Bashir (WHAT?), and David Hasselhoff’s daughter, Hayley Hasselhoff, plus a slew of UK actors, singers, reality stars and sports folk.
Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions is currently airing on ITV in X Factor’s Saturday night time slot. Celebrity is rumored to begin in October. All-Stars will probably air after Celebrity concludes? The Celebrity version sounds awful, and is too UK centric to be of interest to American audiences. However, we may cover All-Stars, here. We’ll see!
UPDATE: Eric Ascher will be covering both X Factor Celebrity and All Star versions.
