Mr Nasty Is Back

He made his name by being music’s Mr Nasty, and it appears Simon Cowell has gone back to his highly critical roots.

The music mogul and X Factor boss proved to be as catty and disparaging as ever to the acts, except for his own of course.

While the contestants found themselves on the receiving end of his bitter disappointment Simon didn’t appear to hold back with the other judges either calling them ‘witches’ and even host Steve Jones was told to ‘shut it’.

While LeRoy Bell, Melanie Amaro and Lakoda Rayne faced the strongest criticism, the Syco boss also used every available opportunity to slam his fellow judges, calling them ‘witches’ and LA Reid ‘the devil’.

But despite his acid-tongue it appears Simon is proving popular with fans and was named the favourite by fans of the show on Twitter.

The song choices proved to be the hot topic of the evening with the rock songs picked by the mentors proving to be the most contentious remarks made by Cowell.

As the Welsh presenter told the audience:’All the acts are performing rock songs or songs in a rock style,’ it appeared the genre of music was interpreted loosely by the judges.

LeRoy Bell opened with Bob Seger’s We’ve Got Tonight but his performance left the judges including Simon disappointed.

The 60-year-old took to the stage in a leather vest, with his sleeve tattoo on show but despite Nicole’s fervent clapping the other judges seemed less than impressed.

LA Reid appeared unimpressed with LeRoy’s performance and he said: ‘We’re no longer simply trying to get through to the next round we are now looking for stardom.’

‘You look great you sound great but you’re still not working it like a rock star. You’re good man, but I need more, $5million this is the big time.’

Paula Abdul added: ‘There is no mistaking you have a beautiful voice. I think what LA is saying is that it’s live television and it needs to be more of a connection.’

Simon agreed and said: ‘Nice song, good voice, but in terms of originality hearing a new version of this song zero this is my problem.‘

But Mr Cowell couldn’t pass up an opportunity to criticise Nicole and quipped: ‘You are being mentored like a session singer. We have heard the same type of songs four weeks in a row.

You should have been like a shark, you were like a dolphin. Right now you can’t win this competition.‘