Louis Walsh slams Simon Cowell and Britain's Got Talent
Louis Walsh thinks Simon Cowell has lost his "instinct" and no one cares about Britain's Got Talent.
Louis Walsh thinks Simon Cowell has lost his "instinct".
The 73-year-old star has hit out at his old friend and X Factor boss and insisted no one cares about Simon's programme Britain's Got Talent anymore.
Louis - who was a guest judge on Britain's Got Talent in 2010 - told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: “BGT, who cares?! It’s not what it was.
“Back in the old days it was pulling in 12 million and the whole country cared who won.
“Now it doesn’t feel like that, who even won last year?
“Cowell was incredible in his prime, I just don’t think he’s got that same instinct now."
The Celebrity Big Brother star admitted he is no longer in contact with Simon as he blasted his entourage, including the 66-year-old star's fiancee Lauren Silverman, the mother of his son Eric, 11.
Louis added: “He’s surrounded by people who won’t tell him the truth anymore...
"He’s surrounded by fakes.
“He’s a family man now, Lauren’s in charge of his diary, and his phone, I’ve not heard from him in years.”
Simon recently launched a new boy band, December 10, after putting the group together on Netflix series Simon Cowell: The Next Act, but Louis - who previously managed the likes of Boyzone, Westlife, and Girls Aloud - isn't convinced they will be successful.
He said: “December 10, they should have been called April 1st.
“I genuinely hope it works, for the boys’ sake. I know what it’s like when things don’t take off — it’s the artists who feel it.”
Insiders dismissed Louis' comments about Britain's Got Talent.
A source said: “This is typical of Louis. The show has never been better, last year’s BGT reached over 30million viewers on ITV and ITVX and over on digital.
“BGT has had over 27billion lifetime video views with 4.7billion of those from the last series alone.”
Meanwhile, Simon has previously admitted he just "laughs" when Louis lays into him in public.
He previously said: “Friendship is you can say things and laugh about it afterwards.
“So when he goes on certain shows and mouths off about me, I’m like, ‘Louis! Why did you do that?’. He said, ‘Well they paid me a lot of money!’. I said, ‘I know but you didn’t have to say that’, and I just burst out laughing.”
