The Stage

Cowell tips experience to triumph in X Factor

Published Wednesday 1 September 2004 at 11:15 by Joanna Taylor

Music mogul Simon Cowell exclusively revealed to The Stage that more than 50 of the contestants who have made it through to the initial audition stages of his new TV talent competition, The X Factor, are over the usual cut-off age limit of 26 and many hail from clubland.

It was previously disclosed that he had been forced to widen the remit for potential entrants in an attempt to combat a talent deficit in the 16-26 age group - breaking a trend for young, inexperienced pop stars.

Cowell tipped the eventual victor as one of the older contestants in the show, which, unlike some of the other recent talent search programmes, has no upper age limit. He claimed they were more interesting than younger singers, such as those on his previous programme Pop Idol.

Speaking earlier to an EITF audience, he added that he was surprised at the bitterness of performers who had faced years of rejection but told them with his help they can achieve fame.

Said Cowell: “The interesting part is the older contestants. I was amazed at how bitter they are because they have faced so much rejection. I thought they would be grateful but because they have never made it they just thought this would be another disappointment.

“It is my job to convince them that they can win. I believe that it will be one of the older contestants who will win the final because they have a better story to tell than a 16-year-old.”

Cowell used his platform at the EITF to disagree with the earlier assertions of John Humphrys, who claimed reality television is harmful to society, branding it “mind-numbing witless vulgarity” in the previous day’s MacTaggart lecture.

But Cowell argued that good reality TV involves providing the audience with a “keyhole to look through”. He also revealed that he was shocked at the number of deluded contestants who believed they could be a popstar but who, in his opinion, lacked any talent, saying “the only explanation can be that they are nuts”.

The X Factor begins on Saturday, September 4, on ITV1.