The Simon Factor - Ottawa Citizen

The X Factor premieres Wednesday, Sept. 21 on CTV and Fox at 8 p.m.

It was one of the early boot-camp shows when Simon Cowell finally lost it.

He gathered the producers around the judges' table of his new reality-TV singing competition The X Factor and threw a hissy fit. The version for polite company is that Cowell wanted to give producers a piece of his mind about the alleged quality of the contestants.

Cowell insists viewers will see the dust-up at some point, when The X Factor makes its official TV debut Wednesday, Sept. 21.

"We're going to show the good bits, the bad bits, the ugly bits," Cowell told reporters last month in Los Angeles, moments after those same reporters saw a 12-minute highlight reel that included Cowell's dressing-down of the show's producers. "And there are a lot of ugly bits."

Clearly, Cowell knows how to sell a new entertainment package. A year after walking away from his job as a judge on American Idol — the most watched show on U.S. TV — the brash Briton has lost none of his self-confidence. His new venture, in which he is both creator and executive producer as well as a judge, is promoted with the simple tag line "He's Back."

First, though, he has to gain the audience's trust. And part of gaining that trust is telling it like it is, even when things don't go exactly right. And on this day, nothing was going right.

"There were about 90 contestants left, and they were given a simple task," Cowell recalled. "And everything went wrong. It wasn't their fault, really; the arrangements they were given were simply terrible. I couldn't hear the piano player, so I screamed about that. The guitar sounded out of tune. I was concerned for the day. I was saying to the producers — in a very calm way — 'I don't like what I'm hearing, and could you sort it out. Please.' That's what happens when you make reality TV, you know. Real things happen, and it doesn't always go your way."

The X Factor, already a huge hit in the U.K. offers an unprecedented $5 million prize for the winner. Judges compete with each other as mentors to singers and to groups of performers aged 12 and up who audition in arenas packed with thousands of people.

The show brings Cowell's cutting sarcasm back to prime-time television and reunites him with his old American Idol sparring partner, the erratic but endearing Paula Abdul. Former Pussycat Dolls lead singer Nicole Scherzinger and record producer Antonio "L.A." Reid complete the judging panel.

"Paula can be a bit wacky at times, but Nicole isn't far behind," Cowell quipped, going on to describe working with Abdul as "like getting an old dog back from the rescue pound. It's kind of grateful to see you, and the relationship is back intact."

Cowell has set the bar high for The X Factor, calling it a "game-changer" for TV that he says will thrash the competition and beat American Idol — also on Fox — as the most popular show in America.

Getting the show off the ground in the U.S. hasn't been without challenges. Cowell made a rare misstep earlier this year when he chose British singer Cheryl Cole — unknown on this side of the Atlantic — as a judge and then swiftly removed her when she underperformed in early tapings.

In the version North Americans will see Sept. 21, Cole is on the first show, but not on the second — a change introduced merely with the line "a new city, and a new judge."

"Lots of things went wrong along the way," Cowell said of the Cole saga. "Bad things happen when you make reality shows, but you've just got to deal with it."

Cowell is bullish on The X Factor's prospects, which is why he's taken his normally intense demeanour — "We don't make any intentional effort to be mean; it's just us" — and ratcheted it up to almost Spinal Tap levels.

"Truthfully, if we didn't believe we could find a star — and that's why we have guaranteed the winner $5 million cash here — then I wouldn't have made this show. A TV show is one thing, but this is more about televising the process of becoming a star. Unless you have stars on these shows, you have no show. If I didn't think the talent was worth $5 million in America, I wouldn't have made the show in America."

Postmedia News, with files by Reuters