Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber has taken aim at talent show rival Simon Cowell for not spending enough time with his acts.
The composer launches his new series Superstar on Saturday to rival Cowell's The X Factor and Britain's Got Talent, and he insists that unlike Cowell he is always close to the performers on his shows.
He says: "Me and Simon are very different - like apples and oranges."
Lloyd Webber admits that he likes to 'get the best out of performers, adding: I like to give them my best shot - then it's down to them. I guess that's where me and Simon differ slightly. I get involved to see if they're OK."
Lloyd Webber also added he had left the BBC because so many of his pals had also defected from the corporation: 'It's like going back to work with old friends at ITV because the team there are the ones who first took my ideas on at the BBC years ago."
Superstar will hunt for a male lead in new production of Jesus Christ Superstar, written by Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.