Louis Walsh has claimed axed ‘X Factor: Celebrity’ stars Brendan Cole and Jeremy Edwards "might" return to the show in 2020.
The Irish music manager – who is mentoring the Unders – has suggested the former ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ professional and ‘Hollyoaks’ actor could make a comeback on the ITV talent show, if they work on their singing.
He told The Sun newspaper’s Bizarre TV column: "They might be coming back next year. They’re going to go away, rehearse and come back and be quite good."
The pair failed to impress the judges – Louis, Nicole Scherzinger and Simon Cowell – and special guest Howie Mandel with their audition of Kylie Minogue’s ‘Love At First Sight’.
Jeremy slammed comedian Howie, a friend of Simon’s who was in the audience, for his harsh criticism of their performance.
He said: "This was just me, I can’t speak for Brendan on this. Brendan is more used to it than I am.
"They edited down quite a lot of what Howie said and I’m going to be completely honest with you, I don’t think a lot of it was necessary.
"I don’t mind criticism and certain things didn’t work.
"But certain things did and there was a lot of positives there, but A, he talked for ages and B, it was negative, negative, negative.
"At one point I wanted to say, ‘dude, you’re not even a judge so can you shut up. It only matters what these three say’."
However, Brendan insisted he enjoyed the experience.
He said: "It was actually kind of clarifying because nobody knew what was going to be put out on the show.
"We were all there, it’s a hell of an experience and they’ve put together this incredible show and I was proud watching it.
"You cringe at your own stuff obviously, but as a whole you’re proud of everybody because everyone has put together a really great show.
"The production team have obviously done a great job and here we are. I think it’s going to be good Saturday night television."