Brace yourselves for brand new Xtra Factor Live...

There's a new line-up

Rochelle Humes and Melvin Odoom have moved on (Odoom is signed up to Strictly Come Dancing this year) and Rylan Clark-Neal and Matt Edmondson are leading the charge. Rylan's a former contestant (he took part in 2012) and Matt presented ITV spin-off The F Factor in 2010 after vlogging about the show in 2009. Captial FM DJ Roman Kemp is also on hand. He'll mainly run the social media side of the show (he's also the digital face of the main show), but, as he put it: "[I'll do] those jobs that Matt and Rylan want to send me out to go and do," which he insists he trust them on completely (yikes!). "It’ll be something funny each week," Roman adds.

They're going live from day one

While the main show will feature pre-recorded auditions from inside the rooms, The Xtra Factor Live will be just that, live. They meet and interview the most-talked about acts from each show and interact with fans more than ever (get your questions/tweets/videos ready).

There's going to be a studio audience for the first time

"[That] is going to be amazing. So we’ll be doing a lot of viewers' comments. It’s very much a viewers' show," enthuses Rylan. "It’s just bringing it closer to the viewer than I think it’s ever been."

They're very excited about it being live

Rylan: "Matt does live all the time, I only do live ["I only do live," he repeats in his best diva drawl] so it’s actually, believe me, in the world of X Factor a million times easier than sitting around until 2 in the morning waiting for someone to do something/an auditionee to do this – it’s perfect. We know what time we start, we know what time we finish and we’re having a lovely time with it."

Matt: "It’s the best possible thing to do because if we weren’t presenting the show, I’d definitely be at home watching and tweeting along."

Rylan: "We’re getting paid to watch X Factor!"

They're not nervous* (*ish)

Matt: "I don’t think we’re nervous. I think we’re really excited about it. It will feel like a totally new and different show."

Rylan: "We’ll s*** ourselves like an hour before."

Matt: "I do suffer from slight runny poo when I’m nervous. I should let you know that now [talking to Rylan] so that will happen. Are we sharing a dressing room?"

Rylan: "We’re two rooms apart thank god."

As far as they're concerned, it's the viewers' show

"More so than ever I’d say because you’ve just watched the main show, you’ve just watched that first audition show and then straight off the back of that show we’re live in your living room and that’s not been done before with the show," Rylan explains.

"So you’ve just seen Dave audition and Dave has just seen himself audition for the first time. So Dave will be with us, so his phone will be going off the hook. It’ll be like 'Dave can you believe this?' and he’ll be like, 'My mum’s calling me!'"

"I think with the old shows you used to get a little bits of interaction with some of the odder acts that, you know, probably won’t make it through to live shows," Matt adds. "But it would be like a little skit or a bit of a chat and then nothing. We can now have those people who are going to be the ones that everyone is talking about in to do a live chat and to get their feedback. Whereas normally they wouldn’t get that, it would all happen on the TV and it would exist in that bubble."

They want Sinitta on

Rylan: "Plus Sinitta."

Matt: "Oh, obviously. Guaranteed. Minimum once a series."

Rylan: "Oh, min!"

Matt: "Minimum. Minimum."

Rylan: "Oh yeah! I’m telling you now if I had it my way it’d be a three-handed show."

In fact, we've learned she appears on the very first episode doing a joke 'gap year' with Louis Walsh to catch up on what he was doing last year. He teased he was relieved to find she didn't sing during it.

Simon Cowell has already freaked them out

Matt: "Most bonkers thing that we’ve seen, at Six Chair Challenge we went into a room that was about the size of this room, it was the judges’ room, totally bustling with people, so busy and in amongst all of the chaos, people moving lights, setting up cameras, a buffet, people eating, clanging, people having conversations... Simon Cowell was there on a sofa, bolt upright, asleep. He just tuned the world out."

Rylan: "You sort of know that he’s there but we’re like, do we reference he’s asleep?"

Matt: "He’s like a waxwork."

Rylan: "Do we do anything? Do we say hello? Is he asleep? It’s like he shuts down."

Matt: "Power down."

Rylan: "It’s like someone turns him off and on."

Matt: "Which is a great ability to have. I thought I was a good napper!"

There's an act in Ireland they're keen to have on their show

Matt: "There’s a lovely guy in Ireland (people in Ireland do genuinely go nuts for Louis Walsh. He’s like the most famous person).

[Rylan aside: "He’s like Jesus."]

Matt: "So this bloke came in who had the hair of Draco Malfoy’s dad – that kind of bleach blonde. The sweetest guy. He worked in a gift shop so had bought them all gifts. He bought Simon a Voodoo Doll, which seemed quite an odd gift. Simon was like 'Who is this meant to be?' And he was like 'Well you can make it whoever you want'. And if there’s one thing Simon doesn’t need it's more power."

So who did he make the doll represent? "I can’t remember. I don’t think he did, although I think there was some side eye at Louis..."

Rylan and Matt are pretty sure they'll be fired next year

Rylan: "We will get sacked next year."

Matt: "Oh, guaranteed."

Rylan: "But we’re fine with that. That’s what happens. That’s like the contract."

Matt: "It’s got the lifespan of a mayfly, or on flying ant day. They’re around for a bit and then they go."

Rylan: "But we’re alright because we’ve got other jobs."

Matt: "Exactly. We’re fine. I think we’re fully aware that it could just be one year."

Rylan: "And that’s fine."

(read even more on this here)

They want controversy and mishaps on their show

"Our whole job is just to p*** about," says Matt. "So if something scandalous or controversial happens, bring it on, that’s what we want!

"Anything that’s going to get people wanting to turn over and watch our show, absolutely delighted to have. I’ll be prodding Louis with a stick to try and make him say something terrible."

It's going to be unpolished

"[Xtra Factor] has almost been that polished thing and watching something that we’d already watched half an hour before. [You felt like] 'Hang on, this is just the main show repeated'. It’s gossip for me this show. It’s saying 'What do you think of this?' or 'I didn’t think this was very good'," says Roman.

"It’s the show being able to laugh at itself, which is great."

The trailer gives a hint of what's to come

As Roman pointed out, the teasers that have already gone out are a good indicator of what's going to be happening on ITV2. For example...

The Xtra Factor Live starts on ITV2 at 9:30pm on Saturday 27th August and 9pm on Sunday 28th August

For all the latest X Factor news and gossip visit itv.com/xfactor