Louis Walsh thinks this year's 'The X Factor' is going to be "unpredictable."

The singing show's boss Simon Cowell has made some dramatic changes to the format of the forthcoming series after he was alarmed by the a drop in ratings last year and, although he insists it will still have the same "feel", judge Louis Walsh has teased that there will be a lot of twists and turns that the audience aren't expecting.

Speaking exclusively to BANG Showbiz on the red carpet ahead of screening and Q&A of the first episode in London on Wednesday (30.08.17), he said: "I know Simon has made changes but it is still going to be 'The X Factor'.

"It's not like the old predictable 'X Factor', Simon doesn't want it to be predictable, we never know what he's going to do."

And, although he's swapped some things around this year, the 57-year-old music mogul made the decision to keep the judging panel - comprised of himself, Louis, Sharon Osbourne and Nicole Scherzinger - this time around because they work well.

Louis, 65, explained: "These are the best people I have ever worked with professionally. They care and I love them more than anything. I wouldn't want anybody else this year. When Simon told me and Sharon that we were back, we said we wanted Nicole, we wanted her more than anything else."

And though they got their own way, Simon was forced to bring in his 'Britain's Got Talent' judge Alesha Dixon temporarily while Nicole was tied up with other things.

The Irish music manager explained: "Alesha was a great guest judge and she would be great on 'The X Factor' if she ever wanted to leave 'Britain's Got Talent'.

There were rumours to suggest that pop diva Mariah Carey had been approached for a judging role this year but Louis has poured cold water on that and has teased that the 'Hero' hitmaker would just hold them up with her poor time keeping skills.

He said: "Imagine waiting for her today - we would all be looking at our watches!"