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"Peter Fincham, ITV&amp;#039;s director of television, has warned viewers to take reports about who will sit on the X Factor judging panel with a &amp;quot;bucket of salt&amp;quot;.  Speaking to Richard Bacon on BBC Radio 5 Live, Fincham insisted that Simon Cowell will still be &amp;quot;closely involved&amp;quot; with the upcoming series despite his commitments in the US. &amp;quot;It has to remain speculation,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;The X Factor is coming back and is back in the ITV schedule this autumn. Simon will be closely involved with it as he is always involved with it. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t want to sound like an evasive politician, but I&amp;#039;m not in a position to confirm or deny any of the individuals to be sitting in those chairs or on the X Factor this autumn.&amp;quot; Asked if it would be a &amp;#039;disaster&amp;#039; if Cowell did pull out of appearing on the series, Fincham responded: &amp;quot;No, of course it wouldn&amp;#039;t and you shouldn&amp;#039;t look at it that way. The show will be there and when we&amp;#039;re ready to announce who will be on it we will announce who&amp;#039;s on it.&amp;quot; Reports have suggested that Cheryl Cole will return as a judge on the next series, while Louis Walsh and Dannii Minogue have been told that they have to officially apply for their roles. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/news/a307760/fincham-x-factor-reports-are-speculation/>