‘The X Factor’ UK: Reigning champ Louisa Johnson on Rita Ora’s exit, new judging panel

We’re not too far away now from the latest season of “The X Factor” airing, and with that in mind, we’re hoping to get a lot more in the way of stories on the show over the next few weeks!

Today, what we have is a quick-take from reigning champion Louisa Johnson on the subject of the judging panel, which was announced to be Sharon Osbourne, Nicole Scherzinger, Simon Cowell, and Louis Walsh. It’s sort of a “meet the new boss, same as the old boss” situation, with all of the judges being familiar with the show. The only twist here is that this is the first time that they have all done the show together. With all of these new hires comes the exit of Nick Grimshaw, Rita Ora, and Cheryl Fernandez-Virsini on the show.

Speaking about all of the changes to The Sun, Johnson (who is readying a new album) had the following to say:

“I think it’s great. I’m sad, she was amazing, but one of my favourites was Nicole, so I’m really glad to see her back, It’s the old crew … I think Rita needs time to do her own stuff. She’s wanted to work on a new album for a while, and now she’s got the opportunity to do so.”

We of course imagine that Johnson will be back on the show this fall to perform at some point; while we wouldn’t say that the series has had a breakout artist since Ella Henderson, they do at least put forth more effort to promote them that other singing shows out there.

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