Simon Cowell has confirmed that Whitney Houston – who died this weekend, aged 48 – was one of his choices to replace Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul on the next series of The X Factor USA.
The music mogul has often complimented Houston during his years as a judge on various TV talent shows. He’s now revealed he’d “ironically” arranged to meet with producers today (Monday, February 13th) to discuss the possibility of hiring Whitney on the show.
“We were ironically going to meet on Monday and of course, one of the names we were going to be talking about in that meeting as a possible mentor on the new series of X Factor was going to be Whitney Houston,” he revealed on the Piers Morgan Tonight show.
According to the former American Idol judge, he’d heard through the grapevine that Whitney had hoped to join his latest show for its second season.
“The rumors that had got back to us… and that’s often what happens when people want to be on these shows, somebody tells someone to get the word out, it’s normally a sign that they are interested.
“Given the choice, I would have liked to have taken her under my wing as well, because she would have been the ultimate, ultimate mentor to any contestant coming on the show.”
Other names recently seen flying around to become new judges on The X Factor USA, include Katy Perry, Nikki Minaj and Beyonce.
Related posts:
Get the latest news and photos on: Simon Cowell, X Factor USA
