Louis Walsh, Gary Barlow, Nicole Scherzinger and Tulisa Contostavlos won’t be conducting this year’s X Factor bootcamp in London as usual.

Auditions for the 2012 series of the ITV show wrapped up in Cardiff last week and later this month more than one hundred hopefuls will be recalled to perform again for the panel, however they won’t be doing it in the nation’s capital.

It has been claimed that because of the London 2012 Olympics and the expected disruption to public transport, bosses have decided to relocate the final stage of tryouts to Liverpool.

A source told the Daily Star: ‘The Olympics has posed a huge problem for us this year. London has always been the choice venue for boot camp. But now we are having to rethink it, and fast.

‘The place is completely booked out. It would be a nightmare to stage it during the Games so we’ll have to move.’

The contestants won’t just have extra travelling to do, but it has been reported that this year’s bootcamp will be the toughest yet, with hopefuls expected to have more dance training, more vocal coaching and more challenges than ever before.

Simon Cowell is looking for characters with a lot of spark and attitude too and it was recently claimed that he is looking for more singers like last year’s controversial contestant Frankie Cocozza, who was eliminated from the show for illegal drug use.

The X Factor returns to our TV screens this August and runs until December. Are you excited? Leave your comments below…