SIMON Cowell is back with a brand new musical competition show for ITV, six months after The X Factor was canned following a 17 year run.

Walk the Line, which premieres on December 12, follows acts as they compete for a £500,000 prize – but there's a twist.

What does the winner of Walk the Line get?

There's an impressive prize fund of £500,000 up for grabs to a contestant who is willing to risk it all.

Simon Cowell explained: "We wanted to develop a show which will give contestants a life changing cash prize if they win."

However, contestants will also be offered a hefty "cash-out" prize to walk away from the competition each time they progress to the next stage, meaning potential winners will need to be able to hold their nerve in order to win.

Will the Walk the Line winner get a record deal?

It doesn't look like there's an automatic record deal offered to the winner of the show – unlike winners of The X Factor, who were immediately signed to Simon's record label Syco.

However, Syco Music – which was under the umbrella of Sony – was abandoned in late 2020.

Simon himself had walked away months before the label closed and reportedly landed a 8 figure settlement in the process.

How is Walk the Line different to X Factor?

The format of Walk the Line will be considerably different to Cowell's past shows, including The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent.

First of all, Cowell also won't be appearing as a judge, with Take That star Gary Barlow stepping in to his role on the panel, due to family commitments.

However, the mogul will still be acting as a producer.

Additionally, on Walk the Line, it won't be enough to just impress the judges – the contestants will also need to hold their nerve at the end of every episode, as they'll be offered a generous "cash out" prize to sacrifice their spot in the contest.

This means contestants will have to choose whether they want to continue to compete for the 500k prize (but risk walking away with nothing) or take the lump sum and leave.

The longer the act remains in the competition, the larger (and more tempting) the cash offered to leave the show will become.

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