Louis Walsh has been axed from 'The X Factor' after 11 years.

Louis Walsh

Louis Walsh

Simon Cowell reportedly told the Irishman in person and on good terms, as he is to be a judge on the music mogul's Irish version of ITV's 'Britains Got Talent'.

A senior TV source told The Sun newspaper: "They are close friends so Simon wanted to do this in the right way. He didn't want to leave the discussion to executive producer Richard Holloway because that backfired so badly when he sacked Cheryl Fernandez-Versini from X Factor USA in 2011."

The source said that viewers had become "sick" of the judge, revealing: "Viewers had become sick of Louis' constant use of tired cliches and the same old jokes. He'd been doing it for 11 years and it seemed like he was just going through the motions."

The One Direction label owner previously sacked the 62-year-old eight years ago, but shortly after he invited him back because he missed him.

Louis reacted badly the last time round and Simon wants to avoid that.

The sourced added: "When Simon sacked Louis last time, he went rogue and started slagging off Simon and The X Factor. Simon doesn't want that to happen again, especially because he genuinely loves Louis as a pal, so the Ireland's Got Talent job will work out perfectly.

"It's very likely Simon will also invite Louis down to the X Factor this year to act as his adviser behind the scenes."