Sharon Osbourne Says Her Age Is The Reason Simon Cowell Fired Her From ‘The X Factor’
In the U.K., Sharon Osbourne was a judge on The X Factor, which is one of the biggest entertainment reality talent shows there is. She first became a judge in 2004 when the first season aired and stayed as one for another three seasons after that. In 2008, she was replaced by Girls Aloud member Cheryl. In 2013, 2016, and 2017, she returned to the show. According to Bustle, when it was announced that she would no longer be starring in the TV show, a lot of fans were upset.
Digital Spy has reported her speaking on her chat show The Talk on Thursday, where she admitted the reason Simon Cowell didn’t let her carry on being on the show was because of her age. She explained she rejected a judging slot on U.S. reality series The Masked Singer because she was already contracted to The X Factor.
“I was signed to go to England, and then Simon Cowell changed his mind and thought I was too old,” she expressed.
“Simon goes, ‘She’s old. We need somebody young.'”
Speaking about Osbourne’s comments, a source close to Cowell has told Bustle that this reason is completely untrue.
It has been said that he wants to scrap the regular civilian competition for this year, in order to air back-to-back series featuring celebrities and then memorable contestants from The X Factor‘s past.
Sharon Osbourne married heavy metal singer-songwriter Ozzy Osbourne in 1982. Sharon gained her celebrity status when she and her family had their own reality show — The Osbournes. It followed her family’s daily life and had a national audience. The Guardian reported that it was MTV’s most successful production and one of the most talked-about shows in America. The hit show started in 2002 and ended in 2005, after a run of four seasons and 54 episodes.
Her daughter, Kelly Osbourne, once said that she wouldn’t rule a revival of her family reality TV show, per Digital Spy.
“We’ve talked about it and it’s something that if we are going to do it again, the way we did it is so different, we did it on MTV and that had never been done before so if we’re going to come back, we’d want to do it in a way that has never been done before either,” she said.
In 2007, Sharon became a judge on America’s Got Talent for six seasons.
In 2014 and 2017, Osbourne appeared as a guest panelist on the U.K. daytime programme, Loose Women. From 2010, she became the co-host of the American talk show, The Talk.
From 2006, she has released three biographies — Extreme, Survivor, and Unbreakable. In 2010, she released a fiction book titled Revenge.
On Twitter, Sharon has over 2.45 million followers. Her Facebook page has been liked by over 1.2 million active users and on Instagram, she has over 814,000 users.
