The 57-year-old music mogul is said to have told the audience at auditions in Wembley over the weekend that the show would be getting back to what’s “real”.
“All these crazy things we used to do with themes have gone, no more jukeboxes, none of that rubbish this year,” he apparently explained to the crowds.
“The public are smart enough to know what’s real, that’s what we are focusing on this year,” he added, reported The Sun.
As viewers of the ITV show will remember, the jukebox was slammed last year after it was used to apparently randomly select the song theme for the following week after the Sunday night results.
However, the jukebox chose Fright Night the same weekend as Halloween and the Boyband vs Girl band theme came up after group Four of Diamonds were saved from the bottom two.
An insider told the publication: “Without the jukebox contestants will be able to sing to their full potential, without being constrained by a certain theme.
“This year has seen more acts sing their own music and Simon thinks this will be the best way to find original talent.”
The scrapping of the jukebox is just one of a number of format changes being made of the ITV singing show this year as it was claimed that hopefuls would reportedly be timed during their auditions.
According to sources, the aim is to save time during the audition process – and Simon could also be apparently cutting off his fellow judges in their critique if they go on for too long.
Novelty acts such as Honey G are also set to be getting less focus this year with the spotlight shining more on talent.
The shake-up comes as The X Factor faced ratings lows in 2016.
Daily Express :: TV and Radio Feed
