Olly Murs has been dropped as a judge on ‘The Voice’.
The ‘Up’ singer, 39, joined the ITV series six years ago alongside fellow judges Sir Tom Jones, 83, Will.i.am, 48, and Jennifer Hudson, 42, but has now told how he is “gutted” after he was told last week he wouldn’t be back in his spinning red chair.
He told The Sun: “I’m gutted. I got the call last week to say I won’t be back on the show, and it’s a bit of a shock, to be honest. I didn’t really expect that to come.
“But I don’t want to sit here like other artists might, and shine and gloss this up and say, ‘It was my decision’. I don’t want to do that.
“I don’t want to bulls*** my fans or bulls*** people who watch the show, and say, ‘Oh, it was an amicable decision to leave – I’ve got lots of things on next year, I can’t do it any more’.
“No. Genuinely, I accept their decision, and they’ll find someone great, I’m sure. But am I going to miss it? Yeah.
“Did I want to leave? No. Will I still watch the show? Of course, but it’ll be sore thinking that could have been me… .”
The Sun reported Olly will awkwardly have to attend the launch of the new ‘Voice’ series in October.
He’s being dropped despite mentoring two singers to victory on the show.
Olly added: “I still have a great relationship with ITV and I don’t actually think it was their decision as such – it was probably more (the production company) Talpa.
“They told my team they’re looking at new people. I don’t know if anyone knows yet, but I will really miss Tom, especially as I got very close to him.
“I’m going to miss drinking champagne after the show with him and chatting life stories but hopefully if he reads this, he might get in touch.
“I loved ‘The Voice’ and will always remember my first day on the set — how nervous I was, sitting in that big, red scary chair.
“But I felt I took to it like a duck to water and really just enjoyed it. I am really going to miss it.
“I loved the people behind the scenes, the coaches, everyone involved, so I am absolutely gutted not to be doing it again but you have to move on, don’t you?
“I’ve had knockbacks in my career before, I will be fine. Something exciting will come along.
“But this year has been such a year of positives for me, I always thought something bad might come around… and I guess this is it.”
Olly added he was going to be able to bounce back from the ITV rejection as he is looking forward to joining Take That as a support act on their upcoming 21-date UK tour.
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