Justin Bieber has defended TV talent show The X Factor for discovering talent that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.
The Sorry singer has come out in support of Cowell's musical talent show, which is broadcast on British channel ITV1, due to its record for discovering talent such as One Direction and Little Mix.
However, in an interview with Britain's The Metro newspaper, he warned the music mogul he needs to find some new talent to match the record-breaking group, who rose to fame after coming second on the contest seven years ago.
"These shows have credibility for as long as they keep discovering talent," the Love Yourself singer insisted. "You aren’t going to find a One Direction every season but I think Simon does need to find a big star this year."
Bieber, who was also discovered in an unconventional way after his videos were spotted on YouTube, added he doesn't approve of the criticism directed at reality pop acts.
"I have never understood the hate towards talent shows," he continued. "Some of the biggest artists of the last 10 years have been discovered that way.
"If it wasn’t for those shows, we might not know who One Direction, Little Mix, Kelly Clarkson and Fifth Harmony are... and that wouldn’t be good for the industry."
Kelly was the winner of the first series of American Idol in 2002, while Fifth Harmony finished third on the American version of The X Factor in 2012.
Meanwhile, Cowell has his work cut out to sustain interest in his TV show in the wake of competition from top TV dance show Strictly Come Dancing. The BBC show attracted almost twice as many viewers as The X Factor on Saturday night winning the first ratings battle between the shows this season.
According to the ratings, an average audience of 9.3 million tuned in for Strictly, compared to an average of 4.8 million for The X Factor before catch-up services were taken into account.
The season premiere of the programme had the show's lowest ratings since 2004, with only around six million people tuning in. And Saturday night's episode also had 1.5 million less viewers than the previous week.
