‘The X Factor’ UK notes: Zayn Malik, Matt Lauer, Lauren Platt, Andrea Faustini, and Simon Cowell
There’s a whole lot of news to get to at the moment when it comes to the British version of “The X Factor,” but it feels like there is really no place to start other than the reaction to the whole One Direction – “Today Show” brouhaha that happened Monday.
The basic summary of events here is that Matt Lauer, co-anchor of the morning show, angered many fans of the boy band by questioning whether or not Zayn Malik was absent from the appearance due to substance abuse. They insisted that it was a stomach virus that had kept him from making the trip.
Now, Zayn is making sure his own voice is heard, and he’s not particularly thrilled with the questioning. Per The Sun, the singer had the following to say:
“I’m really angry and upset by what was said onThe Today Show. I was really ill at the weekend, that’s why I couldn’t fly to America … I was gutted to have to miss album release day, but I’m going to be back as soon as I can … As soon as I’m feeling better I’m going to join the guys and carry on with the promotion for the album.”
Was it fair that Lauer asked the question? He had the right to, but we feel like it was sensationalizing too much a headline from months ago about a pot video. You cannot make that type of leap based on just one video.
Simon Cowell … apologizes? – It’s crazy, but it seems to be true. Simon also spoke to The Sun recently, and admits that he may have been too hard on contestants Lauren Platt and Andrea Faustini during his critique for their past performances on the show:
“I had a bad night. I had a really bad headache, I was really grumpy. I want to apologize to Andrea and Lauren because I wasn’t being fair.”
The conspiracy theorist in us does like to postulate a little here that maybe Simon is realizing that it may be best to prop these two singers in particular up. They have been our picks to make the finale ever since the start of the live shows, and we see no real reason to change that now, even though Fleur East is starting to give them a run for their money.
Want to see some of the other recent “X Factor” highlights? Then just be sure to visit the link here, and you can also sign up to get some other TV news worth singing about via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo via ITV.)