Someone at DR3 must have the hots for Simon Cowell given the channel’s decision to replace the cancelled US X Factor with its UK equivalent now that the world’s richest judge has called it quits stateside to return home. 

With it comes the Danish TV debut of hosts Ant and Dec, a couple of infectious Geordies who have been going through puberty since the late 1980s.

But Cowell, who has been making these kinds of shows since his debut on the UK version of Pop Idol in 2001 – the real money came when he took the show to the US with a producer’s credit – is the undisputed star of a show that is monumentally popular in the UK, with nearly 2 billion YouTube views on its official channel.  

Cowell has built his reputation on blithely crushing the aspirations of scores of hopeful stars.  

Insults like “You have the personality of a handle" and “If you had lived 2,000 years ago and sung like that, I think they would have stoned you,” are integral to the show’s success.
Without his comments, it would all be a little dull.