X Factor boss Simon Cowell misses London auditions due to sudden mystery illness

X FACTOR boss Simon Cowell was forced to miss part of today’s London auditions due to a sudden mystery illness.

The music mogul, 57, was left bed-bound after being struck down with the unknown condition — with his fellow judges having to carry on without him at Tobacco Dock in East London.

But the Syco boss did manage to muster the strength to attend later on in first day hopefuls in the capital could turn out for the ITV show.

In his absence fellow judge Nicole Scherzinger, 39, stepped up with sources sayings she then became the stand out star of the show.

A source said: “Simon didn’t feel well early in the day so had to have a bit of a slower start to the day than usual.

“But he felt a bit better as Tuesday went on so decided he would attend after all.
“Nicole really stepped up to the plate without Simon there and everyone said she absolutely dominated — but in a good way.”

Simon’s illness comes a day after The Sun revealed how drastic changes were being made in a last ditch effort to rescue the struggling series.

The live weekend shows will be cut from ten to six with acts voted off on both Saturdays and Sundays meaning “tedious” performance-only Saturday episodes, which got low ratings, will be axed.

Star guest artists will perform on both days and auditions will be held at Thorpe Park in the hope that fun theme park footage will win viewers.

He will discourage novelty acts like Honey G, who came fifth last year as audience figures hit an all-time low and the show was trounced by rival Strictly Come Dancing.

Parts of Bootcamp will now be filmed in front of a studio audience.

And Sharon Osbourne, Nicole Scherzinger and Louis Walsh will be back as judges, alongside Simon, 57, when the show returns later this year.

At its peak in 2010 X Factor was watched by 14.13million an episode.

But last year even the final, won by Matt Terry, only attracted 7million.