Former ITV boss says she only commissioned The X Factor to keep Simon Cowell

Former ITV entertainment controller Claudia Rosencrantz has said she commissioned singing contest The X Factor to keep Simon Cowell at the broadcaster despite not liking the show’s format.

The 66-year-old admitted she preferred the format of its predecessor Pop Idol while speaking on a new Magic Radio documentary called Popstars At 25: The Story Of A Talent Show Revolution.

She explained: “X Factor is not as good a format as Pop Idol, it just isn’t, Pop Idol is the most beautiful format.

“It’s just perfect, pure format, and it works, and it’s worked in every single territory in the world that it’s hit, The X Factor hasn’t, and the reason it hasn’t is it’s not as pure.”

She said the fact that judges mentored acts on The X Factor meant they had “too much skin in the game”, before describing Pop Idol as a “much, much better show”.

Rosencrantz added: “I think at the time, with my ITV hat on, Simon was, he was an absolutely huge star, and as a network, did we need to stick with Simon, or did we need to stick with the better show?

“It was the worst and most painful decision I’ve ever had to make, but if I had to make it again, I would make the same one, because Simon was absolutely amazing at that time, and he was going to go off to America.

“He was going to go and so to keep a hold of him here on on ITV as his home network, I felt was quite an important thing.”

The X Factor last aired in 2018, having followed Pop Idol, which ran from 2001 to 2003, and Cowell is currently a judge on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent, which has been airing since 2007.

Episode one of Popstars At 25: The Story Of A Talent Show Revolution will launch on Magic Radio at 7pm on Sunday February 15, and can be heard in the Rayo app.