Dermot O’Leary says The X Factor won’t be axed any time soon

Dermot O’Leary reckons The X Factor will be around for a while yet.

In fact, he’s already signed up to front the show for at least “a few more years”.

The telly presenter brushed off the idea the show would be axed any time soon and declared: “I’m signed for a few more years. It’s not finishing any time soon.

“I hope not, unless you know something I don’t. I think there’s still an appetite for it and I love that I work on a show that people still talk about.”

Speaking to the Daily Mirror newspaper, Dermot went on to praise Louis Walsh and credited him with helping The X Factor stay on the air for so long.

“We need Louis. We love Louis. You cannot make the show without Louis,” Dermot said. “He’s got so descriptive this year. He’ll say, ‘You stood on the X. You’re 16. You’re a kid with black hair’. You have to give a better critique than that, Louis.

“But Simon will say something, then the others will say something and then there’s sort of nothing for him to say.

“But in many ways, he IS the X Factor because you can’t quite put your finger on why, but you need him there, and you miss him when he’s not.”

The X Factor 2017 continues Saturday and Sunday nights on ITV.