Simon Cowell

Simon Cowell

Simon Cowell will host a summit between the 'X Factor' judges on his holiday yacht.

The music mogul will be on vacation after the Boot Camp stage of auditions take place, but as he wanted more involvement in this year's show, he has decided to have Gary Barlow, Louis Walsh, Sharon Osbourne and Nicole Scherzinger join him on his luxury vessel.

The trip means he can talk the quartet through the acts who make it through to Judges' Houses, and assign each panelist with the category they will mentor this year.

A source said: "Simon wanted to be involved on screen this year.

"We decided it would add extra glamour - and not interrupt Simon's holiday too much - if we took the mountain to Mohammed.

"The judges will get on a plane to his yacht wherever it is in the Med. He'll chat through the acts and then dish out the categories."

It had initially been planned for Simon - who left the show in 2010 to focus on the US version - to preside over the Boot Camp auditions, with the second round stage being moved over to America, but show bosses have revised the plans when it proved impossible to organise.

The insider explained to The Sun newspaper: "We originally intended to do the Boot Camp stage in Miami and he would likely have had a much bigger role. But that plan didn't work out so it will again take place at Wembley Arena [in London] next month.

'The X Factor' returns to ITV1 next month.