It’s a year since Little Mix left Simon Cowell‘s record label amidst drama between their management and the mogul’s SyCo imprint.
And, if folk thought the group bolting the week their ‘LM5’ album dropped was dramatic, then it looks like Cowell has officially upped the ante.
Because, fresh from the ladies announcing their new BBC show ‘Little Mix The Search,’ the industry veteran has revealed he’ll be debuting a new ‘X Factor’ spin-off series with a near-identical format.
Adding pepper to the pot, he also confirmed his show will launch before theirs.
Details below…
Speaking to The Sun, Cowell trumpeted the incoming arrival ‘The X Factor: The Band’ – which’ll seek to put together music’s next big group.
And while many may see this as a direct jab at the Pop quad, given that their show touts the exact same concept, Cowell claims there is more to the story.
He explained:
“This is what really happened. I was approached to co-produce that show last year by Little Mix’s management. I told them the problem was we have a conflict of interest because we are launching X Factor The Band in 2020. We were told their show was going to launch in 2021. Then we had the fallout and find out Little Mix were bringing their show forward. Was that intentional because we are doing our show? I have no idea. But regardless, it was too much fun not to do this year. I would rather it was us doing it first. It 100 per cent makes it more exciting there being a battle.”
He’s clearly not playing when it comes to the battle element, as word is that he postponed a planned ‘X Factor: All Stars’ to first accommodate the band special.
As for what the masses can expect, the 60-year-old added:
“K-Pop is ruling the world. This is a show to find a band to launch UK-Pop. It’s more than winning a record contract, it’s starting a new music wave.
Every group will be put together by us — just like One Direction, Little Mix and Fifth Harmony. It’s people who represent Britain’s version of K-Pop. That was always our plan. We’ve just brought it forward a bit.”
Auditions begin soon, with live finals held in Birmingham next month. Little Mix’s show premieres next year.
Meow!
Diddy’s going to have a fit!
Simon is petty for this. Little mix has actually grown on me. Glory days was a great pop album and LM5 is pretty good too. I do feel like they’ve been mismanaged and haven’t been given the right support to fully pop off in the US.
They’ve had plenty of opportunities. Columbia put a lot of resources in promoting them in the USA and it just didn’t happen. Their best chance was when they toured with Ariana Grande as that is their target market. They should have put their energies into mainland Europe
x factor its not interesting anymore, Back in the day it was diffrent. The leona lewis season or the alexandra burke but now the show is trying to survive. It seems like they will not be a lots of season anymore. On my opinion little mix should be concetrait much more on theiy own carrer than doing this type of tv shows but good luck for both!