Simon Cowell is a man who knows his stuff, you only have to look at the HUGE success of Britain’s Got Talent this year to know that he really does know not only how to spot talent, but how a live talent show should be run.

So it wasn’t too much of a surprise that he has decided to change the format of The X Factor this year, to resemble more of the Britain’s Got Talent format. More specifically, he has said that the audition process of X Factor will now be shot in-front of a live audience, in the same was as Britain’s Got Talent is run.

He has said live on GMTV: “The public support would provide a boost for performers as they appeared on the ITV program“

Explaining the changes to the X Factor format, he said: “I decided that we were going to change the way we do the auditions, for the first time in all the years that I’ve been doing these music shows and certainly on the X Factor, and we made a decision last week that we are now going to do the auditions in front of a live audience.”

He said the decision to change the audition format would help contestants as they would have an audience supporting them but denied it would make the ‘X Factor’ show similar to ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.

Cowell also lifted the lid on tensions between the female judges, Cheryl Cole and Dannii Minogue.

He explained: “Well, look, girls are girls. They always want to be the centre of attention. I don’t think anyone has ended up as best friends but they don’t hate each other. Actually, no, I think they like each other now.“