Simon Cowell has said even he is sick of hearing X Factor contestants' sob stories and won't be lending a sympathetic ear to them this year.

The X Factor head judge returns to the ITV singing contest for the latest series and has said he isn't interested in hearing about anything that doesn't directly relate to how talented the acts are.

He said: "I'm not interested in a sob story, I mean seriously, I'm just so over them. I always say the same thing. I want someone who can become a star in this country, but just as importantly, can become a star in other countries.

"You want somebody who's different, you don't want a second-rate version of someone who's already out there, but you want somebody who's different from anyone else in the charts at the moment."

Simon added that his biggest audition turn off was an act that had clearly been manufactured before arriving at the auditions.

He explained of his audition hate: "I think it's normally a boyband that's been put together by a manager, and told what to wear, what to say, they all come running in and everything they say is scripted, and they pretend to laugh at each other's jokes, I hate that.

"I'd rather find something much more raw - like we had with One Direction. We had five talented guys, we never once said 'wear this, say this, do this' - they had that relationship. That's my most annoying thing - I loathe those people."