Talent Shows, The Rivals: Why Is Simon Cowell In ‘Battle’ Against Little Mix?

ICYMI because you were too busy obsessing over the Frock Destroyers’ Break Up (Bye Bye) on Drag Race last week, in a moment of television gold, Jade Thirlwall strongly hinted towards a feud between Little Mix and Simon Cowell. Appearing on the panel as a guest judge, before she critiqued the queens, Jade was asked by RuPaul how her judging style would differ to Simon's. ‘Well, for starters Ru,’ she quipped, ‘He has much bigger tits.’

It shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise, then, that today Simon has confirmed he is out for ‘battle’ with the group. Not because of that comment – but because of the talent show the band are launching.

Last month, it was confirmed that Little Mix - who were put together on ITV’s X Factor back in 2011 - were launching a talent contest on the BBC to find the country’s next biggest band.

But, now, to directly rival their show, Simon has decided he is revamping another version of X Factor – even though that means him ditching the X Factor All Stars series (where previous contestants would compete against each other) he had scheduled for next month.

Sounds like a lot of hassle for ITV, but Simon isn’t relenting, as he claims he thought of the idea first.

‘This is what really happened,’ he told The Sun{ =nofollow}. ‘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.’

He then continues, saying that Little Mix’s show was brought forward due to their ‘fall out’ - most likely referring to when the group split from Simon’s entertainment company, Syco. At the time, it was said to be down to problems between Simon Cowell's label and Little Mix's management company, Modest. (However, later, in an interview with The Guardian{ =nofollow}, Jesy suggested it was due to the choice of lead single from their fifth album, LM5; Syco wanted Woman Like Me, whereas the group wanted Strip.)

Simon added, ‘Then we had the fall-out 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% makes it more exciting there being a battle.’

‘We are hugely excited to confirm The X Factor: The Band to air in December 2019 on ITV,’ a spokesperson for Syco added. ‘Simon Cowell and The X Factor has discovered some of the biggest pop groups in history, including One Direction, Fifth Harmony and Little Mix. Now the aim is to find the new superstar group – though now in record-breaking time.’

X Factor: The Band is due to launch next month. Little Mix: The Search will hit screens next year.

A representative for Little Mix declined to comment.

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