The X Factor
Suddenly, it’s 2010 again. Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Niall Horan‘s very first moments together as One Direction were revealed Wednesday morning (Aug. 30) in nearly 30 minutes of never-before-aired X Factor footage, showing the then-teenagers getting put through the ringer by Simon Cowell during the early Judges’ Houses stage of the competition show that made them stars.
The footage features raw shots of the five boys practicing their make-or-break performances together, including a previously unreleased group cover of Kelly Clarkson’s “My Life Would Suck Without You” for Cowell. When their passionate, albeit rough-around-the-edges audition earns the band — already unified under the name One Direction — a pass into the next round, Styles, Payne, Tomlinson, Malik and Horan tearfully jump for joy and exchange several group hugs.
At one particularly prophetic point in the video, Cowell wisely predicts that the group will have a “falling out” or two in the future. “You will, trust me,” he tells them.
One Direction would go on to win third place on the British competition series, after which the group quickly released its debut single, “What Makes You Beautiful,” under Cowell’s mentorship. After five years, multiple Billboard Hot 100 hits and four Billboard 200 No. 1 albums, Malik would make his departure from the band in 2015. The next year, the remaining four went on hiatus.
All five of the guys went on to pursue solo careers following their boy-band days, and everyone seems to be on good terms with each other in 2023. True to Cowell’s prediction, though, there were a handful of spats along the way.
The new X Factor footage comes about a year after the show released decade-old video evidence proving that it had actually been Nicole Scherzinger to put the members of One Direction together — not Cowell, as many had believed for years. The assembly of 1D actually saved the guys from elimination, taking their failed solo auditions and sending them forward as a band.
“They’re just too talented to get rid of,” Scherzinger said at the time, piecing the group together based on a pool of headshots of male hopefuls. “They’ve got just the right look and the right charisma onstage. I think they’ll be really great in a boy band together. They’re like little stars. You can’t get rid of little stars, you know? So you put ’em all together.”
Watch the new, previously unseen footage of One Directions early days on The X Factor above.
One of television’s harshest judges has a soft spot for Britney Spears. In an interview with E! News published on Monday (Nov. 14), Simon Cowell gushed about working with the pop star while they were judges on The X Factor USA for its second season, and revealed that she was an incredibly intelligent force to have on the competition show.
Cowell noted that Spears’ decision to join The X Factor did not come lightly. “We spent so long on the phone talking about X Factor before we did it,” he told the outlet. “There’s a side of Britney a lot of people don’t know. I mean, I was on the phone to her two or three hours every time. She was super smart, really lovely ideas about how to launch someone else’s career, which is critical if you’re going to be a judge on one of these shows. So I had a fantastic relationship with her.”
The English reality TV personality also made a plea to Spears directly. “If you’re watching, Britney, and we make a show, please come back and do it with me. It would be amazing. I adore her,” he said. “She really is interesting and she’s so talented.”
Season two of The X Factor USA premiered on Fox on Sept. 12, 2012, and aired through Dec. 20, 2012. Spears and Demi Lovato replaced judges Nicole Scherzinger and Paula Abdul on the show that season, with Cowell and L.A. Reid rounding out the judging panel. Fifth Harmony finished in third place, while Tate Stevens won first.
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