Cowell challenges sting over 'karaoke' remarks

Music mogul Simon Cowell has sparked a war of words with Sting after the musician slammed his TV talent shows as "televised karaoke."

The former The Police frontman expressed his outrage over Cowell's series, including American Idol and The X Factor, branding the programmes "appalling" and accusing Cowell of "humiliating" contestants and degrading the music industry.

Cowell was left fuming following the comments and used his appearance on Saturday night's (14Nov09) episode of The X Factor to hit back at Sting - urging him to prove himself on the show.

He says, "I'm probably going to get into trouble for this. If I may just mention something Sting said in the papers about these contestants and past contestants being a bunch of karaoke no-hopers... I'm going to take exception to that.

"I think this show and other shows have given people like Leona (Lewis) and Susan Boyle a chance. And I'm going to extend an invitation to Sting to come on the show and impart his knowledge."