Simon Cowell wants to give £500,000 to the winner of his next TV talent show.
Simon Cowell
The 61-year-old music mogul may be retiring 'The X Factor' after 17 years, but he's busy with plans for new ITV competition 'Walk The Line', on which he'll be head judge and joined by two other stars.
However, Simon has banned "old faces" and is keen to have “fresh, exciting names that haven’t appeared on his shows before” alongside him as they decide who should progress in the contest to take home the huge prize.
A source told the Sunday Mirror newspaper's Watts the Goss column: “This is a completely new format for Simon and he is very excited.
“He wanted to make the prize the biggest on UK telly right now and was adamant it wouldn’t be any less than £500k. He also wants new faces. There will be no Cheryl or Louis Walsh. Those names are all 'X Factor' and Simon wants new, exciting talent sitting beside him.”
Simon isn't only keen on judges with a musical background, so the 'Britain's Got Talent' boss is auditioning people from various areas of the entertainment industry, with singer-and-actor Olly Alexander and 'Masked Singer' host Joel Dommett reportedly in the mix.
The source added: “Auditions are happening now, and Simon is a perfectionist so he’s not going to announce when the show will be until he has the perfect judging line-up.”
'Walk the Line' will see musical acts - solo artist, choirs and bands - compete for the cash prize, but the two acts judged the best each week have to decide if they want to take some money and leave the competition or "walk the line" to move on to the next stage.
The longer an act stays on, the bigger their prize pot will be as they will then have to compete against a fresh set of musicians.
The programme is due to be filmed in the autumn.
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