Cowell talks 'X Factor', judges - CANOE

L.A. Reid, Demi Lovato, Britney Spears and Simon Cowell. (Supplied)

Simon Cowell says he’d be willing to back a Canadian version of The X Factor, if it were done right.

“I don’t believe this attitude of, ‘We’re a smaller country, therefore we can’t compete with the U.K. or America’ - it’s nonsense,” Cowell said Tuesday at CTV headquarters in downtown Toronto.

“What’s in my mind is, either we join The X Factor up so we can have Canadian contestants, which I think would make sense. Or, if I could persuade the broadcaster, and more importantly that we could find the right team who are really, really trusted, who gets what’s going on in the marketplace now to say, ‘I’ll find you the talent.’

"Because you’ve got to dig for it. You can’t just say, ‘Turn up on this day.’ You’ve got to look for it. And I’m determined to do that.”

Just to be clear, a Canadian version of The X Factor is not right around the corner, organizationally or financially.

But as Cowell put it, “Look at what’s happening in the charts over the last 10 or 20 years. Look at the Canadian talent that has happened. You’d be crazy not to try and do something.

"But I think it’s an attitude that the broadcasters are trying to make a show, rather than what I’m concerned about, which is, you’ve got to find me a star.”

Speaking of finding a star, the American version of The X Factor currently is in the audition phase for its second season, which debuts Sept. 12 on CTV and Fox.

The new judging panel consists of returnees Cowell and L.A. Reid, and newcomers Britney Spears and Demi Lovato.

Cowell described Spears as more “shy” on a personal level than you’d expect, and Lovato as a “total brat.”

But Cowell said when Spears and Lovato band together, they’re fresh and forceful.

“(Spears) is fearless,” Cowell said. “To get a no out of Paula (Abdul, former judge), as you know, was like getting blood out of a stone. She didn’t want to be unpopular. But Britney has literally no qualms, she can have 4,000 people going crazy about a contestant, no.

“Then when the two of them (Spears and Lovato) get together, me and L.A. want someone to go through, these two, they’re immovable. That’s what happens when you put two girls together.”

But are you still the mean one, Simon?

“Watch the tape,” he said. “I’m not so sure.”

As for hosts, Cowell said he expects to have two of them for season two, “a boy and a girl.”

There’s far more reality TV these days than there was when Cowell launched American Idol in 2002.

Cowell said American Idol started to feel like the movie Groundhog Day, so he claims to have no regrets about leaving to engineer the American version of The X Factor.

Would Cowell be one of the judges on his proposed Canadian version of The X Factor?

“I can’t do two,” Cowell said with a laugh. “Maybe I’d make the odd appearance.”

bill.harris@sunmedia.ca