Dermot O’Leary has landed a €10million “contract of a lifetime” to return to The X Factor, The Sun reported.
The four year deal makes Dermot the best paid solo presenter on UK television. An X Factor source called the contract “completely unheard of.”
“This is the comeback of all comebacks for Dermot,” a source told The Sun.
The deal allows the sought-after host to continue working for BBC TV and Radio 2, boosting his annual pay packet to at least €3.5million.
X Factor show boss Simon Cowell cut Dermot last year to bring on Olly Murs and Caroline Flack
The source continued, “Just one year after Simon Cowell axed him, he’s signing the contract of a lifetime.
“It’s completely unheard of for one presenter to be paid €10million to host one show…But the reality is that X Factor just didn’t work without Dermot.
“Getting him to return was absolutely essential for its future.”
The Sun revealed that Dermot was being lured back even before the end of last year’s series.
New ITV chief Kevin Lygo made securing Dermot a priority. He wanted him on board before agreeing to keep X Factor on ITV until 2020.
Our source added: “Simon may have had questions about Dermot’s commitment before but he soon realised he’d made a mistake. Enquiries were being made about bringing him back a couple of weeks into the live shows.
“He had to think long and hard about it because he was loving working on a wide range of projects.
“But at the end of the day he also loves X Factor and he was pretty much able to name his price — it was too good an opportunity to walk away from.”
Simon and Ant and Dec get paid more on ITV, but they are chained to the channel. Dermot can work anywhere else he wants.
“It’s unprecedented that Dermot would be getting so much money from one channel but still be able to work wherever else he wants,” a TV insider explained to The Sun.
Dermot is estimated to earn €1.2million for his other work, although his seafood restaurant Fishy Fishy in Brighton shut down in January.
The X Factor begins airing again next month. Simon will return as head judge, alongside costars Sharon Osbourne, Nicole Scherzinger and Louis Walsh.
An ITV spokesman told The Sun, “We don’t discuss artists’ contracts.”
