Thanks to a last-minute legal deal, Paula Abdul was officially reunited with her fellow American Idol alum Simon Cowell on Sunday as the two jumped into the first round of auditions for the US version of The X Factor.
Abdul will be one of four judges on the Cowell-produced show, which is already a big hit in the UK. Simon and Paula will be joined by fellow judges music producer L.A. Reid and British girl group singer Cheryl Cole, from Girls Aloud. Cowell had run into a few legal hurtles in getting Abdul on the show in time for auditions, reportedly because of wording in Abdul's contract for the short-lived CBS talent competition Live to Dance. He said Sunday he would have canceled auditions if he couldn't get Abdul in time.
"I would've canceled today," Cowell told The Hollywood Reporter on Sunday. "The issue was that these conversations had gone on long enough. It's not like I sprung this on somebody. I just thought it's time for everyone to do their job and get the deal done. I couldn't have sat in front of you lot and said [Paula] wanted to do the deal and we couldn't."
While Cowell and Abdul often clashed on American Idol, he had nothing but praise for the judge widely acknowledged to be the nicest on the show.
"I could just sense that the public would've been disappointed without Paula," Cowell said. "You see how we are; we get on really well."
The X Factor is set to debut on Fox in September.
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