Simon Cowell almost swapped all four Britain’s Got Talent judges on to The X Factor

Yes, so pleased with Amanda Holden, Alesha Dixon and David Walliams was Cowell, he all but walked them (OK, chauffeured them) from one talent show to the other.

“I’ve got to admit it – I think the four of us on the panel is about as good as we’re ever going to get. We actually even considered transferring them all on to X Factor at one point,” Cowell says in this week's Radio Times magazine.

In fact, Dixon was meant to be on X Factor even before she was a BGT judge, but Cowell says it “didn’t work out”.

The BGT judges – who’ve worked together since 2012 – didn’t get a chance to do the classic ‘X’ shape with their arms however, as Cowell didn’t want them to get too cocky.

“Their egos, if I ever suggested it, would be unbearable!” he confesses.

But the idea doesn’t seem too far from Cowell’s current mood. He wants that same bond among the judges on this year’s X Factor. With plenty of rumours Louis Walsh and Sharon Osbourne are set to reclaim their spots on the show, it certainly sounds like he’s going to be looking to familiar faces to achieve that.

“There have been times with X Factor – now that I’ve had the chance to rethink what happened last year and the years before – where we had that chemistry and lost it by trying to change too much,” Cowell admits.

Indeed, Dermot O’Leary has already returned, Louis Walsh has been in LA seemingly having comeback talks and, as we reported last month, it appears Sharon Osbourne and Cowell have been “building bridges” for a U-turn.

With X Factor’s 2015 final drawing 6.76 million viewers and BGT’s 12.4 million, doubling up on a few ideas certainly makes sense. Just as long as the singing pooches turn up to the right audition, eh?

Read the full interview in this week’s Radio Times magazine available in shops from Tuesday 5th April and on the Apple Newsstand