Simon Cowell is said to be on the lookout for a young male judge for next year’s X Factor and Gareth Gates is said to be a front runner for the job.

An insider told The Daily Star: “Like Cheryl, Gareth knows all about this sort of show as he was runner-up in the first Pop Idol series in 2002.

Gareth has a huge fan base and has sold more than 3.5million records.

Although he’s not recording any more, he knows better than most what competitions like the X Factor are all about.”

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Many people have been speculating that this years X Factor series will be the last for Australian judge, Dannii Minogue and this week Heat magazine have reported that Simon Cowell is considering replacing her with a young male judge instead.

“Dannii was brought in initially to be the younger counterpart to Sharon, but since Cheryl arrived, she has replaced Dannii in that role and become so much more popular. It’s doubtful Dannii will be here for the next series,” a source reportedly told Heat.

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Cheryl Cole has proved to be so popular a judge that it is rumoured Simon Cowell has offered her £1.5 million to return for next years series.

The Daily Star has reported that because Cole will be touring America with Girls Aloud in 2009, the show’s bosses are willing to pay for a £5,000-an-hour jet to fly her back and forth for the Saturday night shows.

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X Factor judge, Louis Walsh has told The Daily Star that his pal Sharon Osbourne wil be returning to the show next year, and that Aussie judge Dannii Mingogue will be forced to leave.

Louis told the newspaper that he had no doubts about Sharon’s return, adding: “Obviously Dannii would be the one to go - having Sharon and Cheryl on the show together is too good an opportunity to miss”.

He contined: “The thing about Sharon is she can’t be controlled. At the moment Simon has three judges who, let’s face it, he controls. With Sharon we never knew what she was going to do next - she was just so unpredictable. I really miss her but we speak on the phone at least twice a week.” Read more & comment »

If there was ever an unlikeable Big Brother housemate then Sylvia Barrie is her. It’s gutting to realise then that we might not have yet seen the last of her and that she intends to audition for X Factor next year.

Sylvia told The Daily Star:

“I’m not scared of Simon, I’m sure that I can win him over with my voice.

“I’m not worried about the others, either. I’ll just tell Cheryl how much I love Girls Aloud and tell Dannii I think she’s gorgeous.

“Music is my life. It is all I really want to do and if things don’t happen for me in the next few months then I will try out for The X Factor next year. Read more & comment »