Simon Cowell calls Britney Spears 'mean' and says Demi Lovato is 'annoying' - New York Daily News

The judges for ‘The X Factor,’ from left: Britney Spears, Simon Cowell, Demi Lovato and L.A. Reid.

Simon Cowell is comparing Britney Spears’ judging style on “The X Factor” to that of a vicious beast.

What’s even more alarming, he says, is that the singer is meaner than him on the music competition show, which returns for its second season Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. on Fox.

“You know if when you buy a dog, you expect it to lick you,” said Cowell in a conference call Thursday, “and then it turns out to bite you? It was rather like that. It was a real surprise. She’s really, really difficult to please.”

Spears and Demi Lovato were brought on this year to replace judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger, after ratings were less than what the creator Cowell, wanted.

“In the past we’ve had judges who never say no,” said Cowell, who’s also a judge. But Spears “can’t say no quick enough on this show,” he said.

Cowell added that the pop star is taking the gig very seriously. “She’s surprisingly quite mean,” he notes.

Though Lovato was listening in on the same conference call, Cowell took a shot at her, too, in describing the first time they met.

“I thought she was very confident, very bright, then became quite annoying,” Cowell said. “But she knew what she was talking about.”

He says Spears is less concerned about crowd-pleasing than Lovato.

“[Spears] just wouldn’t say yes for people to like her,” Cowell shared. “When you do these auditions in front of 5,000 people, they boo you, but [Spears] was kind of fearless.

“Because I know the first time Demi said no, and she got booed, I could see the look on her face, like, ‘I don’t think I want to do this show anymore.’ ”

Lovato didn’t take his criticism without giving some return fire. She said the show’s fourth judge, L.A. Reid, is much more fun than Cowell.