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L.A. Reid Blasts The X Factor as "The Worst Thing I've Ever Done"

Why the former judge hated the show

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Sadie Gennis

Don't expect to see L.A. Reid return to reality TV anytime soon.

"It's the worst thing I've ever done," the formerX Factor judge told The Hollywood Reporter.

"The first season, yes, I had a great time," Reid, the CEO of Epic Records, continued. "It was a little bit of a vacation. I'd been making music, working at running labels for a long time, and it was a little bit of, 'Let me just have some fun.' But the second season, I was fully engaged trying run a label, and it wasn't fun anymore."

Reid explained that his tenure on the show even had real-world consequences for him when it came to running his label.

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"It really affected my taste -- it almost destroyed it," Reid explained. "It completely threw me off. ... What works for television isn't necessarily the thing that works in the traditional journey of music, so I adjusted my taste for television. But the truth is, I lowered my bar -- my bar was quite high, if I'm being honest, and as a result I didn't have the same level of success. The bar is quite high again now, but it was damaging. I worked with Simon Cowell, who I love and have great respect for and he has great taste, but being around him for that long, I started to take on his taste, and I'm an amateur at having his taste. I'm good at my kind of taste."

Reid later clarified on Twitter that his comments "were about me personally and were not meant to reflect on Simon Cowell, the X Factor, or its successes."

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