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Media
Louis Walsh to leave X-Factor after tenth series
By Aly Barchi | Published on Wednesday 7 August 2013
‘Evergreen’ ex-Westlife MD Louis Walsh has revealed he’ll leave ‘The X-Factor’ after this year’s series. Walsh has been a part of the franchise since the now ten year-old ‘X’ first aired (bar that time in 2007 when he was temporarily replaced by Brian Friedman), ‘winning’ only once via his one-time ward, Shayne Ward, in 2005.
Walsh, who back in May began auditioning for a Boyzone-style pop band to manage once he has nothing to do ‘X’-wise, told the TV Times: “I’m happy this is going to be my last year. I’ve been judging ‘X-Factor’ for ten years so I’ve done it all. It was never in my plan to be on TV but Simon put me there. I’m very grateful to him but I need my life back!”
A comment-bot at ‘X-Factor’ HQ intoned: “We’re delighted Louis is back for a record breaking tenth series this year. It’s far too early to say what the judging panel for 2014 may or may not look like”.
So that means Nicole Scherzinger, Sharon Osbourne and Louis Walsh will be on the judging panel for the upcoming series. But what about Simon Cowell? Well, according to the rumour mill, he’s cancelled plans to return the UK edition of the show, on account of the having-a-baby-with-a-friend’s-wife scandal he’s caught up in at the moment.
A “show source” told The Mirror: “Simon has delayed the original date he was going to set sail on his boat and it is not going to work in his schedule now, so it has been cancelled. His problems and drama off screen are now starting to impact on his TV shows. He even called the UK judges personally to apologise for messing them around. ITV bosses are furious at the last-minute change. Simon’s return was going to be a big coup for them, but now that he’s just doing exactly the same as he did last year, it’s no big draw for the viewers. It’s really disappointing”.
