Robbie Williams says he "will" return to 'The X Factor' despite drastic changes to the show.

Robbie Williams

Robbie Williams

The 'Angels' hitmaker joined the panel last year alongside his wife Ayda Field and their fellow newcomer Louis Tomlinson, and he has opened up on his future after reports the singing competition could be "axed" in its current form.

During an Instagram live session on Wednesday night (13.02.19), Robbie asked a fan if he should return as a judge this year.

When the follower said "yes", he replied: "That's it... it's decided lads. And Ayda... that's it. She is next door.

"I will go into there and tell her. I will say we should do it. We will do it."

The video was deleted immediately from his page on the social media website, and follows reports regarding the future of Simon Cowell's talent show.

A source said: "The decision has been made to drop X Factor in its current form. It has been 100% axed. The show is done.

"It's being replaced by a show that'll only be for celebrities. Members of the public won't get to take part. So viewers won't see new talent being discovered anymore. It's the end of an era."

Whilst changes are afoot for the format, it was expected that Robbie might make a return to the show this year, although there are fears his Las Vegas residency could cause a schedule conflict.

An insider previously added: "Producers were impressed with Robbie and Ayda last year and definitely want them back. But there's a bit of a question mark currently over how auditions fit in with his Vegas residency.

"There's talk of ripping up the schedule entirely to work around him. However, the problem is that if they do auditions in May that clashes with 'Britain's Got Talent', which most of the crew also work on.

"If they push it back to July, then that puts serious pressure on producers to get all the stages of the show finished, so they're stuck a bit at the moment."