Steve Jones: 'Simon Cowell offered X Factor USA two years ago'
Published Oct 7 2011, 20:28 BST | By Paul Millar
Steve Jones has claimed that Simon Cowell offered him the X Factor USA presenting role in 2009.The 34-year-old, who was unveiled as the host of the talent contest in May, previously worked exclusively on Channel 4 in the UK.
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Speaking on Piers Morgan Tonight, Jones recalled: "Well, Simon had approached me about four years ago to work on a project which I couldn't do because I was under contract with a different channel.
"And he said, 'I'll come back with something'. And he came back about two years ago and said, 'How would you like to host American X Factor?' And I went, 'Yes. I will do that.' About two years ago. It was a long time ago.
"Obviously then I went through a process of meeting the right people at Fox and Freemantle, the production company."
The star admitted that Cowell's offer was only informal, adding: "It was a long, long road. It was getting a bit hairy towards the end, because I didn't actually secure the job until two days before we started filming."
Watch Steve Jones 'storm off' Piers Morgan Tonight below:
George Armitage Plus Gethin isn't Steve's brother. If you think that you probably think Alex Jones who he presents Let's Dance for Comic Relief with is his sister and Tom Jones is his father :P
October 13th 2011 at 5:13pm
I think you're getting confused:
- He said he was under contract at the time; 4 years ago i.e. exclusively for Channel 4 as DS states.
- Got offered X Factor USA 2 years ago;. no longer exclusively under contract to Channel 4 and also working for the BBC i.e. Let's Dance for Comic Relief which started in 2009 - 2 years ago.
Pretty simple really.
October 13th 2011 at 5:08pm
Dermot is so much better and stronger presenter.
October 11th 2011 at 11:24am
So far on XFactor USA he's been a dud. He's not been featured a lot and when he has, he's been rather boring - pretty to look at but boring...hopefully he'll get his mojo on for the live shows. (I would have liked to have seen a male/female host like was originally planned but oh well) By the way for you Brits, we do miss Cheryl Cole. Even though AMERICANS have no idea who sh e is, we don't understand why she was fired as she seemed perfectly ok on the episodes she was in, and nicole scherzinger seems rather boring... Atleast cheryl had experience with the format. Still not sure why she was let go...except maybe someone thought between her and Steve, there were too many Brits.
October 11th 2011 at 4:25am
Samuel Fathers - It's not DS that's made the factual mistake, it's in Steve's quote
October 9th 2011 at 2:39pm