Simon Cowell gearing up to announce American X Factor judges

Simon Cowell will reveal the judges for the US version of ‘The X Factor’ in “three or four weeks”. The music mogul — who will launch his hit pop star search TV show in America next year — plans to make a “surprise” announcement about the new series in December.

“I’m going to make an announcement within three or four weeks, which is going to tell everyone everything. There will be some surprises,” he said.

Simon is still staying tight-lipped on who will be joining him on the judging panel, but did say, “OK, one of the judges has quite long hair.”

The 50-year-old star is reportedly considering a number of big name American stars, including Katy Perry and Nicole Scherzinger, for a role as well as Girls Aloud singer Cheryl Cole – who is a judge on the British version along with Louis Walsh and Dannii Minogue.

However, Cheryl could lose out on a place on the US X Factor thanks to British host Dermot O’ Leary.

The presenter is said to have impressed American bosses — who are worried about the program having too many UK stars — so much that they are willing to ditch her in order to have Dermot on board.

“They were really impressed after watching him,” a source said. “He was in talks for hours but they didn’t talk to Cheryl. Apparently, the job is his.”

Simon also hit back at Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe who recently claimed his show will always be a better than X Factor.

“It’s childish, it’s disrespectful, bearing in mind what we achieved together,” he said. “I wouldn’t have liked it if anyone else said the same thing.”

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