Simon Cowell has been spotted leaving the Sony studios in London alongside girlfriend Lauren Silverman and Naughty Boy as filming gets underway for X Factor: The Band.
The music mogul, 60, appeared to be in a great mood and couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he left Sony’s headquarters.
Simon has been hard at work scouting the UK’s next big band on his new show, which will see him and Nicole Scherzinger take the judging panel.
The pair will be working alongside industry experts to pick out band they think have the chance of achieving worldwide fame, along the lines of One Direction.
An X Factor insider told The Sun: ‘Simon and Nicole are already winding each other up about who’ll pick the best band and the judges won’t hold back with their opinions during the auditions.
‘It will be like a throwback to the old days where they’ll say what they really think – even if it comes across as harsh. There won’t be any time for wasters.’
While there was no sign of Nicole as Simon left the studios on Tuesday evening, it looked like he was pleased with how things were going on the show.
It comes after he scrapped plans for X Factor: All Stars in favour of The Band, following the success of the first ever season of X Factor: Celebrity.
There’s no rest for Simon, however, as his new series will start just nine days after X Factor: Celebrity finishes on 30 November, with the first show of X Factor: The Band being aired on 9 December.
Simon took to Twitter to announce that the date for the show was being brought forward and urge hopefuls to sign up.
He said: ‘We have weeks to get this together,’ the Syco boss said. ‘Very simply, we’re either going to try to find the biggest boy group in the world or the biggest girl group in the world. You’ve got just days to enter.’
If anyone can pull off a whole TV talent show in a matter of weeks it’s definitely Simon Cowell – and judging by his grin, we’ve got a lot to look forward to.
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