‘The X Factor’ UK spoilers: Simon Cowell hints at changes to live shows

With the premiere of “The X Factor” coming up on ITV this weekend (or AXS, if you’re watching in America), this is of course the time in which everyone starts to wonder what’s going to make each particular season stand out from the others. In one way or another, every season does have its own identity, and we imagine that this is going to be the case here, as well.

On the surface, there are two clear changes we know about.

1. We’re going back to audition rooms, which is fine to us because we always liked this idea better from an evolutionary standpoint. It’s almost like you have to earn your way to performing in front of an audience, which is a cool concept.

2. Nicole Scherzinger, Sharon Osbourne, and Louis Walsh are all back on the panel with Simon Cowell. Walsh had suggested in the past that this was his dream panel, so let’s see if this turns out to be every bit as entertaining as we think it could be.

Finally, let’s turn now to the live shows, as Simon claims (per Digital Spy) that there is something else coming in the live shows that is a little different:

“There will be one feature that we’ve been talking about for a while which I am excited about. It’s going to make the shows more fun. All will be revealed soon – it’s good!”

The only thing that we hope is that this is not something that will tell the audience who is getting votes a la a leaderboard. This is something that we had in the second season of the American “X Factor,” and it was terrible because it took away any drama as to who would be staying from one week to the next.

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