Simon Cowell 'hypnotised' fans with 'new face' during latest appearance on The X Factor

Simon Cowell returned to UK screens at the weekend as The X Factor: Celebrity premiered, but it wasn't the talent on stage that "hypnotised" viewers.

The seasoned judge looked unrecognisable as he watched acts such as Try Star (made up of British rugby players Levi Davis, Ben Foden and Thom Evans) and Jenny Ryan (UK The Chase quiz master) perform on the makeshift stage set up at Cowell's Malibu mansion.

As the 60-year-old critiqued contestants on the Saturday night episode, the Twitterverse was critiquing him, saying how Cowell appeared to be a completely different person on screen.

"Mate, I can't get over this is how Simon Cowell looks now surely it's just a whole different person altogether," wrote one, while another said they just couldn't look away. "Feeling slightly hypnotised by Simon Cowell's new face," they admitted. 

Meanwhile, another said that Cowell just needed "some burgers down him ASAP," with another agreeing that the star's gaunt appearance made him look like a "waxwork". 

Cowell's new look is likely down to his recent lifestyle overhaul. After the music exec collapsed down a flight of stairs at his London home in 2017, reportedly due to low blood pressure, he adopted a vegan diet and swiftly dropped 10kg. 

"It has changed me," Cowell previously told The Sun of his accident, which he said was a wake-up call. "The crazy late nights working, [now] no more late nights — and I'm getting up earlier. I feel a million times better, genuinely. You reach a point and you go, 'What's all this for?' You don't want to kill yourself working."

But while viewers mocked Cowell's new face, Louis Walsh only had love for his fellow judge. Well, sort of...

"Simon's got a new face," the Irish talent manager told The Sun ahead of the episode. "It's brilliant, he obviously looks after himself a lot. He looked terrible last year. He did, let's be honest."

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