‘The X Factor’ UK notes: Sam Bailey, One Direction on ‘Sesame Street,’ and novelty acts

Sam Bailey to release autobiography – We begin this chapter of “X Factor” notes with what is the biggest news coming out of the UK right now: The plan for the show’s reigning champ to release a book about her life, her process on the show, and more. We’s an interesting, inspirational person who had a long road to success, so this could be a good read … hopefully. So long as it doesn’t come across like a tabloid, we will be happy.

This story was first reported by Newsbeat and is in conjunction with the publisher Blink. In a new statement, Bailey had the following to say:

“The last year has been such an amazing journey for me. I feel so lucky, excited and privileged to be able to share it with everyone.”

What’s Simon doing? – Now we move on to this current season, and the reports that Simon Cowell is looking for more novelty acts in the auditions. According to The Sun, this is to change things up and boost ratings after Gary Barlow last year showed such a public disdain for “joke acts” making it far in the competition. Simon may claim that he hates these acts … but c’mon. He loves to have this sort of wackiness to get people talking.

One Direction – We’ll close here with One Direction, who will probably be the most famous act to ever do the show unless something drastic changes over time. Louis, Zayn, Niall, Harry, and Liam all made some appearances recently on “Sesame Street,” and you can see them in video form below.

One features the entire group from early this year singing about the letter U, just in case you hadn’t seen it before now. The other video is brand-new, and specifically focuses on Liam and Harry reciting the ABCs. It’s pretty cute, and if you are wondering why this is happening given that pre-schoolers have no clue who One Direction is, this is the sort of thing that gets older people watching with their children or siblings. Engagement is key!