X Factor Bosses Want Bigger Delay in Live Shows Because of Britney Spears

Ever since Britney Spears was confirmed as judge / mentor on X Factor USA, there’s been a lot of speculation online on whether she could cut it during the live shows. A new report suggests she might not.

The Daily Mail claims to have it on very good authority that X Factor bosses, Simon Cowell included, are worried that the claims recently made in court by Britney’s ex-manager Sam Lufti have undone all the hard work she’s been putting in these past couple of years.

Consequently, perhaps a bigger delay in the X Factor live shows would be ideal, to prevent any scene she might cause.

“Britney has been getting her life back together this year. Everyone around her has worked hard to get her back to a good place and keep her there, and what Lufti's doing seems like it might undo their good work,” an insider says.

Generally, delays in live shows are up to 7 seconds, offering plenty of time for organizers and broadcasters to bleep out any curse word or take out an entire, potentially offensive frame.

With Britney, they fear she might do worse and, as such, more time would be needed to cover up her gaffe.

“It's not surprising people are concerned, it's going to be a huge test for her and there's a lot of pressure, in fact producers have had meetings to discuss having an extended time delay on the live show broadcast which is usually seven seconds delay,” another insider says.

“It's up to Fox if they can make it longer but everyone's nervous and no one knows what to expect,” adds the spy.

Of course, making the delay longer than 7 seconds and enough to cover for Britney if she storms off the set, which reportedly happened during the auditions, would literally mean that the shows are no longer live.

So far, during auditions, Britney has been handling herself excellently but, even if she hadn’t, producers had a way of keeping incriminatory footage from getting out, through editing.

“Britney is going to be live on-air for 3 hours a week. If anything goes wrong, it happens in front of the whole country – there is no rewind button on LIVE TV,” yet another source says for the Mail.

“Taping auditions is one thing, when they have a whole day to take breaks but live shows could be a train wreck if she isn't super-prepared for it or if she can't handle the pressure,” the insider continues.