Simon Cowell takes swipe at Little Mix

Simon Cowell takes a swipe at Little Mix in \'The X Factor: The Band\' when he dismisses a wannabe and tells them to apply for \'The Search\'.

The music mogul recently insisted there is no "grudge" between himself and the former \'X Factor\' winners, despite both parties launching talent shows searching for new chart-topping bands, but he mentions them in his new series.

According to The Sun newspaper\'s Bizarre column, Simon dismisses a wannabe deemed not good enough to progress on his programme and tells them: "Little Mix are doing a show next year.

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"You should apply. Tell them I sent you."

Simon and Nicole Scherzinger will be aided by industry experts on \'The X Factor: The Band\', with \'X Factor: Celebrity\' judge Louis Walsh not expected to return as a panellist for the series.

The pair will be the only judges on the new talent show, and they are expected to dish out no-nonsense views on contestants.

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A source recently said: "Simon and Nicole are already winding each other up about who\'ll pick the best band and the judges won\'t hold back with their opinions during the auditions.

"It will be like a throwback to the old days where they\'ll say what they really think - even if it comes across as harsh. There won\'t be any time for wasters."

The show, which will see individual acts put together to form groups, will begin on December 9th and the final will air on December 15th.

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Earlier this month, Simon insisted he doesn\'t have a "grudge" against Little Mix but admitted he brought \'The X Factor: The Band\' forward so the programme would air ahead of their talent show \'The Search\'.

He said: "With music, radio, TV - sometimes you just have to do something quick.

"The truth is I have a group show which I launched in America, I think four or five years ago.

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"We\'ve always decided to do a group show in the UK so we\'d agreed with ITV that we were going to do \'X Factor Groups\' in 2020.

"So that was all fine and then we were going to do the \'All Stars\' version this year, and then when we found out that the Little Mix show was going go out in 2020.

"I didn\'t want to follow that show since we\'d already planned it years ago.

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"I thought, \'Well, we\'ll just bring it forward. Simple as that.\'

"And it wasn\'t like some grudge against Little Mix or whatever because you know I owe those girls a lot."