Simon Cowell is back in business and is set to play the judge for the Israeli version X factor.
The music mogul will recover part of the second half of 2020 from complex back surgery after an accident on an electric bicycle.
He will be the judge of the fourth season X factor in Israel, which is broadcast on Reshet 13 and which has just started production. This is the first time he will be a judge on a show he has created outside the UK and US
Cowell said, “Over the years X factor format revealed amazing talents from around the world, I can’t wait to see what Israel has to offer. “
Season three X factor Israel, hosted by supermodel Bar Refaeli, aired between October 2017 and January 2018. The judges include rapper Subliminal, pop star Ivri Lider, R&B singer Shiri Maimon and songwriter Moshe Peretz.
A connected story
CBS closes music competition series “50 States to a Star,” by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Simon Cowell
It comes as X factor, the basic ITV schedule in the UK, rested in 2020, for the first time in 16 years that it was not broadcast in the UK. Cowell signed a five-year contract with ITV for his second show, Britain has talent, which also included another season X factor and Cowell is now working on how to breathe new life into the UK format.
X factor ran three seasons in the U.S. on Fox between 2011 and 2013, and Cowell was a judge.
Cowell was forced to miss live shows America has talent earlier this year as a result of his accident. The NBC show replaced him with guest judges, including Kenan Thompson, during the first two quarterfinals before the rest of the competition format was performed with just three judges.
He is also working on a new CBS competition series, 50 states to the star, as Deadline discovered in October, where he teamed up with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard.
Cowell told Deadline earlier this year that the Covid-19 lock gave him some time to devise new formats.
“I’ve had to use my brain more than any other time in my life, both in the current shows we own and in the new shows we’re going to make,” he said. “I had more time than ever before, so we have, for example, three new formats that we didn’t have 12 months ago because I had time to work on them, develop them properly and the last time I did that or had time for it, honestly, it was around 2005 – around the time I came up with Got Talent. I’m very excited. ”