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Gary Barlow hasn’t spoken to Simon Cowell about his new talent show venture

By Chris Cooke | Published on Tuesday 12 July 2016

Gary Barlow hasn’t spoken to Simon Cowell about his move into talent show television. In fact he hasn’t spoken to Simon Cowell for three whole years. And who can blame him?

These revelations come amidst rumours Team Cowell are watching with interest the new talent show that former ‘X-Factor’ judge Barlow is developing for the BBC. As previously reported, Barlow’s new show, working title ‘Let It Shine’, will involve him putting together a Take That tribute act to appear in a new musical featuring the group’s tunes. It is set to fill the gap in the BBC 1 schedules caused by ‘The Voice’ shifting over to ITV.

Cowell is “keeping a close eye” on the new show just in case it appears to be too close a rip off of his talent show franchises, says some random gossiper mentioned in the Mirror. Because that would be just like the Barlow, wouldn’t it, him ripping off the genius of his former employer?

And let’s not forget, aside from his more famous talent shows, Cowell’s Syco was also behind the 2007 ITV series ‘Grease is The Word’, which also recruited singing wannabes for a stage musical, and which was in now way like the 2006 BBC series ‘How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?’, which recruited singing wannabes for a stage musical.

Asked whether he had spoken to Cowell about his new telly venture, Barlow said: “I haven’t spoken to him since I left ‘X-Factor’ three years ago. My show’s totally separate”.

So, that’s that all sorted then. Gary Barlow’s ‘Let It Shine’ will be a totally separate TV phenomenon and in no way similar to the upcoming new series of ‘X-Factor’. Except that they’ll both be awful.