Simon Cowell wants Cheryl Tweedy on X Factor

12 July 2017

Simon Cowell wants Cheryl Tweedy to return to 'The X Factor'.

Simon Cowell

The 57-year-old music mogul is reportedly keen to recruit the 34-year-old singer to join him at Judges' Houses during this series and is willing to offer a hefty sum of £50,000 to get her back on screen.

A source said: "Simon wants to pull out all the stops for this year's show, and bagging Cheryl's long-awaited return to telly would be one of his top wishes."

And Simon is also considering sweetening the deal by asking Cheryl to appear alongside her partner Liam Payne, with whom she shares three-month-old son Bear.

The insider added to the Daily Star newspaper: "It would be telly gold ... Nothing's decided yet, but bosses are very fond of Cheryl and when she's ready to do something, of course we'd be interested."

Meanwhile, it was previously revealed Simon is keen to temporarily move into 'Downton Abbey's Highclere Castle in Berkshire for the Judges' Houses round of the show.

A source shared: "The show producers were keen to do something a bit different for Simon's house this year and Highclere Castle was suggested.

"They loved the idea. They think it would be great fun to have Simon sweeping down the grand drive in a vintage Rolls Royce to greet contestants.

"And they would of course hire a team of butlers to wait on him and the contestants. At the moment that is their number one choice. The only other option currently being discussed is Simon's house in LA. But it has obviously been used in the past."

Simon is on a mission to save the show from getting the chop after last year's viewing figures were a flop and has been making changes to the show in a bid to stop that happening.

An insider said recently: "Ratings plummeted and Simon knew a drastic revamp was needed. The Saturday night show became so tedious as there was rarely any drama which an eviction would bring. ITV believes transforming it is the right decision. It means all singers will perform on both Saturday and Sunday evenings, with acts being eliminated both nights."