Simon Cowell will mentor the Over-25s category in the new series of The X Factor, a public vote has decided. The results, which were confirmed on the show's official Twitter page on Tuesday, reveal that Cheryl Fernandez-Versini will coach the Groups for the first time, while Rita Ora gets the Girls and Nick Grimshaw the Boys.Upon hearing the news, Simon tweeted: "Wasn't the category I was expecting. I did win last year with the Overs so I'm sure we will do great things this year."
On Sunday, he had attempted to sway the vote by posting a series of tweets: "I would love to mentor the girls this year. The girls category needs an expert and that's me! Vote for #SimonGirls.""@Cherylofficial had them last year but I've not mentored the girls since Leona, and look what happened! #SimonGirls.""Love the boys category but I had three guys in my Overs last year, it would be more fun to mentor something different."
Simon mentored the Overs last year and was hugely successful – his singer Ben Haenow was crowned winner and his other contestant Fleur East came second.
The ITV show kicked off with its first round of auditions last weekend and is already proving to be an emotional rollercoaster – both for contestants and judges alike.
Simon was brought to tears by a powerful rendition of Jealous by Labrinth, performed by contestant Josh Daniels.
Cheryl also fought back the tears as she provided feedback for the hopeful after his performance. "That was the most captivated I've been in all the auditions so far," she said, before getting up from the panel to give the contestant a hug.
Josh, 21, told the panel that his choice of song was inspired by the loss of his best friend, who died aged 18 in a car crash in 2013. The pre-recorded scenes were filmed shortly after the death of Simon's mother on 5 July, and the emotional lyrics clearly struck a chord with the judge.
