‘It’s important to keep our audience interested’: Simon Cowell admits to Strictly rivalry ahead of X Factor launch… after last year’s show waltzed ahead with 5MILLION more viewers

They’re two primetime heavyweights locked in battle for viewer supremacy each year.

But now X Factor boss Simon Cowell has sensationally admitted his show cannot compete with its BBC counterpart Strictly Come Dancing, because of his younger, smaller audience.

Following the 2016 series, that saw X Factor trounced by Strictly by almost five million viewers, the music mogul, 57, revealed that competing for audience figures was an impossibility thanks to Strictly’s older viewership.