Declan Donnelly, one half of Ant & Dec, has admitted that he liked the old style X Factor auditions more.

Declan is not a big fan of the audience presence at this year’s auditions and said that he preferred the contestants singing for the judges alone during the early stages.

speaking at the Edinburgh TV festival Dec said: “I personally thought it was better in the audition rooms and one-on-one with the judges.

“To do the auditions in a small room before going to boot camp and then on to the big live studio shows to me was a more logical journey.”

He added: “It’s a very big audience to be auditioning in front of.”