Simon Cowell claims he was asked to executive produce 'The Search'.
Simon Cowell
The 60-year-old music mogul isn't upset that Little Mix are launching their own TV talent show to rival his upcoming 'X Factor: The Band' because he will always be grateful for how much they boosted ratings when they competed on 'The X Factor' and insisted there's just a little bit of "friendly rivalry" between them.
He told Closer magazine: "I love the girls and they made a massive difference to the show.
"I'll never forget what they did for us.
"I was actually offered to be an executive producer on their show when they first signed up to it.
"It was originally going to be in 2021 but when they brought it forward to 2020, I brought 'The X Factor: The Band' forward too.
"I would call it friendly rivalry - that's how showbusiness operates."
Simon's comments echo his previous insistence that he doesn't have a "grudge" against Little Mix but brought 'The X Factor: The Band' forward so the programme would air ahead of their talent show.
He said: "With music, radio, TV - sometimes you just have to do something quick.
"The truth is I have a group show which I launched in America, I think four or five years ago.
"We've always decided to do a group show in the UK so we'd agreed with ITV that we were going to do 'X Factor Groups' in 2020.
"So that was all fine and then we were going to do the 'All Stars' version this year, and then when we found out that the Little Mix show was going go out in 2020.
"I didn't want to follow that show since we'd already planned it years ago.
"I thought, 'Well, we'll just bring it forward. Simple as that.'
"And it wasn't like some grudge against Little Mix or whatever because you know I owe those girls a lot."
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