14 DAY TRIAL // After the Super Bowl ad announcing that “He’s Back,” Simon Cowell has been keeping busy with work on the US version of X Factor. Right now, he’s getting ready to start auditions and is still considering judges, as he reveals in an interview with Matt Lauer.
Lauer and Cowell sat down for a little talk the other day (one from NYC, the other from London), to speak of the upcoming show, of which Simon says it will put American Idol in a corner of shade.
Though he’s never been the one to hold back his words, when it comes to the new X Factor judges, Simon is keeping very tight-lipped.
As the video below will confirm, he tells Matt he’s “sworn to secrecy,” and will only give away this: the judges will not include Mick Jagger, as some of the wildest rumors out there claimed at one point.
Another details Cowell agrees to share with a rather frustrated Lauer (he was really hoping for some “breaking news”) is that the male judges will not be better looking than him (Simon).
“There will be cues,” Simon says when asked about the lineup of judges. “But the male judges will not be as good looking as me,” he adds.
He does reveal, though, that the show will no longer have an age limit, which means it will include both very young and older contestants.
As for fears that some of the younger aspiring singers may have problems coping with the pressure of such a huge show, Cowell says each case will be judged separately – meaning perhaps that they will not allow a contestant of a frailer constitution on the show.
“In the final you could have a 14-year-old versus a 40-year-old. Historically man, you know, I have seen a lot of these kiddy singers who looked like they had been pushed into it by their awful stage mums. They all sang Good Ship Lollipop and it was excruciating. No one wants to sit through that,” Simon says.
It was necessary to include younger singers – because that’s what the public wants to see now.
“I thought long and hard about the cut off age and I wanted to give these kids a chance but I’m going to take it case by case,” he says, adding that Willow Smith’s example speaks volumes about how age has nothing to do with showbiz.
Check out Simon Cowell’s interview with Matt Lauer below. Enjoy.