Louis lands ITV Popstars slot

Louis Walsh, one of the judges in Ireland's Popstars competition, is to be a judge in the new British series of the show.

Walsh will be joined by Geri Halliwell and Pete Waterman and the show will be presented by Big Brother favourite Davina McCall.

Walsh was one of the judges in RTE's version of the show with Bill Hughes and Linda Martin.

The show went on to discover the Irish Popstars band Six.

Now he will be a judge in the second series of the ITV version of the show which discovered the band Hear'say.

Davina McCall will front Popstars: The Rivals, which will see a girl band and a boy band battling it out for a number one chart hit.

Louis, who has discovered Boyzone, Westlife and Samantha Mumba, will join Pete and Geri judging thousands of hopefuls at auditions in London, Manchester and Glasgow, while Davina brings viewers behind-the-scenes action.

They will then pick a shortlist of ten girls and ten boys who will live together Big Brother-style in two neighbouring houses.

Viewers will then vote to evict a girl and a boy each week until they settle on the final band line-up.

The show is scheduled to be broadcast on ITV this autumn.

Meanwhile ITV's Pop Idol reject Sarah Whatmore has scored a club hit with her debut single.

When I Lost You is not due to be released until September 9.

But the track is already at number 35 on DJ Magazine's club chart.

It has also made the number 26 and 28 slots on Music Week's pop and dance charts.

When I Lost You was written by former Mud guitarist Rob Davis, who also co-wrote Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out Of My Head.

Sarah was knocked out of the semi-final stages of Pop Idol by Rik Waller and Aaron Bayley.