Yesterday morning, prior to the death of Whitney Houston, an insider had revealed that X Factor was looking to get Whitney Houston onto the show’s judging panel for the second season.

Last night while speaking about Houston’s death, Simon Cowell did confirm this news.

He said to Piers Morgan on CNN:

“We were ironically going to meet on Monday and of course, one of the names we were going to be talking about in that meeting as a possible mentor on the new series of X Factor was going to be Whitney Houston,” Cowell said.

“Given the choice, I would have liked to have taken her under my wing as well, because she would have been the ultimate, ultimate mentor to any contestant coming on the show.”

Following the firing of Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger from the panel, there are two spots next to L.A. Reid and Simon Cowell that need to be filled for the second season.