Dermot O’Leary says X Factor would be ‘done differently’ now as he defends show

Dermot O’Leary has reflected on the X Factor, seven years after the show ended.

The 51-year-old Irish presenter hosted the singing contest from 2007 to 2014. He returned for its final three seasons between 2016 to 2018.

The programme launched the careers of One Direction and Olly Murs, and was judged by Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne, Louis Walsh and Cheryl Tweedy during its heyday. Although it drew 19.4 million viewers at its peak, the show’s legacy has been marred by retrospective concerns about the treatment of contestants.

O’Leary appeared to defend the show against criticism, insisting that most of the negative experiences came after aspiring singers left the set.

“If the show was made now, it’d be made differently,” he told The Times. “The culture is different, but it was pretty much always celebratory. Look, not everyone on the show is going to knock it out of the park. Not everyone is going to have the best experience.

“But most of the people we had on were treated really well, and a lot of people who have talked negatively about their experiences are talking about what happened after they left. I think 99 out of 100 actually missed the show — they missed the bubble. So if there is a duty of care to be looked at, it’s what happens afterwards.”

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He also gave his thoughts on the duty of care owed to musicians across the music industry, following the death of Liam Payne last year. He died aged 31, after falling from a third floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Payne found fame on The X Factor in 2010 when judge Nicole Scherzinger put together a boy group with Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Payne. The group went on to achieve staggering international success.

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“He was both wise and sort of a young soul at the same time,” O’Leary said of the late musician.

“And that’s an industry-wide conversation that should be had. Duty of care is the most important thing when doing shows like this and I wouldn’t dare to presume to speak for everyone. But in my experience, it was always taken seriously on the show — and would be even more thorough now.”