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"Nicole Scherzinger has admitted that it feels odd to not have Simon Cowell sat beside her on the X Factor panel this year. The Pussycat Doll described the Syco boss as her &amp;quot;mentor&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;teacher&amp;quot; and said that it would be strange to not have him &amp;quot;driving me nuts&amp;quot; on the show, like he did on X Factor USA.   &amp;quot;I was with Simon last week. I went to school with Simon, he taught me what to do and that&amp;#039;s how I started on this show,&amp;quot; she said.  &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s weird for him not to be there, getting under my skin, driving me nuts. I&amp;#039;m actually having a pleasant time on this show.&amp;quot; Scherzinger revealed that she still kept &amp;quot;close contact&amp;quot; with Cowell to talk about the show and claimed that he was &amp;quot;excited&amp;quot; by the Boys category, which includes Jahmene Douglas, James Arthur and Rylan Clark. The X Factor Live Shows launch on Saturday night. Watch Digital Spy&amp;#039;s interview with Tulisa and the X Factor Girls:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/the-x-factor/news/a410289/x-factor-nicole-scherzinger-its-weird-without-simon-cowell/>