‘The X Factor’ UK: Dermot O’Leary returns in new audition promo

For anyone out there who wants to audition for the upcoming season of “The X Factor,” you may now have an additional incentive to try out: The opportunity to get a hug from host Dermot O’Leary!

For the first time since it was announced that he was returning to host, the show has released a new promo featuring him front and center, strangely walking down a straight but luckily not being hit by any cars. He claims that he is back from a “lovely holiday,” and the whole purpose of the video is to convince people out there from across Britain to audition. There’s even a cameo from notoriously bad act Wagner for good measure.

We do think that there is an intentional effort within this promo to play up humor first and foremost, mostly because this is something that the most-recent season was sorely lacking. Everyone was so serious the vast majority of the time, and if there was one word quite frankly to describe it, it was “depressing.” The show actually needs to take a page from its fellow ITV talent competition in “Britain’s Got Talent.” Sure, you don’t always get star material from that show, but people want entertainment first and foremost. Very few people watch so that they can figure out who is going to be a star potentially down the road; they want to enjoy the moment.

New episodes of “The X Factor” should premiere on ITV this summer; we’ll have some further news coming up fairly soon…

Want to get some other news when it comes to “The X Factor”? Then be sure to head over to the link here right now! Also, sign up over here to secure some more TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: ITV.)