‘The X Factor’ UK: Louis Walsh to leave, Simon Cowell absent for season 10

Lets allow the folks over in the British tabloids to work themselves into a frenzy over this one: It appears as though Simon Cowell is not going to be appearing on the upcoming tenth season of “The X Factor” despite some long-standing hype that he was going to provide some sort of huge “ratings bump” by turning up at some point.

The Mirror reports that Simon was originally going to meet judges Louis Walsh, Gary Barlow, Nicole Scherzinger, and Sharon Osbourne on his luxury yacht to hand them their assignments for their season. However, the recent pregnancy controversy regarding Lauren Silverman has forced him to change his mind on that, feeling as though the appearance would send the show down the wrong path. Cowell has already tried as much as he can to distance himself from Silverman’s divorce to his (former?) friend Andrew, feeling like all of this is an unwanted distraction from a series that really does not need any more bad press.

Meanwhile, Louis Walsh also confirmed recently that Cowell is going to be rather busy next summer. Why? He’s leaving the show at the end of the year, meaning that his decade-long reign of terror over the panel will be over. To be fair, we actually do like Louis at times, even if his acts rarely win and they often have a reputation for being more camp than anything else. It’s also believed that both Sharon and Gary are also done after this season, which to us means that there could be a complete overhaul, and only Nicole could be left standing if the price is right.

Will you miss Louis?  Do you think that the general public cares a great deal less about seeing Simon for a few minutes on TV than the tabloids make it out to be? If you want to read some more “X Factor” related news, just be sure to head over to the link here.

Photo: ITV