Dermot O’Leary has given the latest X Factor gossip as rumours swirl over who will judge this year.
It may only be January but already there’s been a lot of speculation over who will be The X Factor judges for 2018.
Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh, Nicole Scherzinger and Simon Cowell were on the panel last year.
However there are rumours Nicole could be out and Cheryl may be coming back.
Dermot will definitely be staying as host, and says he’d love to have Cheryl return.
He told OK! magazine: “I look at different judging years like wines – like, ‘Oh like my 2012s’! I think you develop relationships with people and miss them when they’re not around, but then you haven’t seen someone for a couple of years and they come back into your life and it’s really nice.”
He continued: “Cheryl’s a lovely person so I’d be lying if I said it’s not nice to work with her as it’s really lovely to work with her.
“And she pulled a blinder at judges’ houses – she was like ‘I don’t think they’re up to it’.”
But Dermot says he doesn’t want Nicole to leave, adding: “She’s like a sister now – she’s a lovely girl.”
And if Cheryl doesn’t come back, Dermot teased: “If it wasn’t Cheryl, I would love Mariah. It would be a whole new world of crazy my friend!”
Meanwhile, Dermot insisted that The X Factor still had a strong future despite declining ratings.
“We’re very comfortable in our own skin now. We’ve been doing it for so long, we all love doing it and we’re not under any pressure from the channel,” he said. “We’re still rating well; it’s just not where it was.
“We all know the world we started making that show in – people watch telly in a completely different way now.
“So you take solace in the fact that Grace Davis has had that many hits, or Rak-Su had three out of the top five singles on iTunes.”
The X Factor 2018 will air on ITV later this year.
More on: Dermot O'LearyThe X Factor
