Simon Cowell has issued a clear word of warning to this year’s batch of X Factor hopefuls. He has insisted that winning the show is no guarantee of success and said that whoever finishes in the top spot has a 50/50 chance of flopping massively.

He told The Sun: “We can’t guarantee that they will be an international star. There is a 50/50 chance that they are going to make it. Sometimes it doesn’t work.

“The music business is hard. Trying to find a star with long-term appeal is not an easy job.

“But they will have a better chance of being a star after being on this show.”

So is he referring to the Steve Brookstein’s and Leon Jackson’s of previous years?

“Yeah we don’t always get it right,” he admitted

“People can give an amazing performance on the show but then they can’t get the whole career thing right. It’s disappointing but it’s out of our hands – it comes down to the public whether or not they like them after the show.

“If the public don’t like someone for whatever reason, then we try and learn from that situation and make sure that we don’t hire people like that again.

“But I’m 100 per cent committed to the artists.”