Simon Cowell made a brief appearance on tonight’s X Factor on ITV.

The music mogul appeared to inform each judge of which contestant category they will be mentoring in the 2012 live finals.

Gary Barlow was given the Over 28’s, Louis Walsh once again got the groups, Nicole Scherzinger has the boys and Tulisa was put in charge of the girls.

After Boot Camp there are just 24 acts remaining in the contest with six in each category.

In the next phase of the competition Judges Houses, each judge will need to choose their favourite three singers from the six. The final twelve will then go head to head in London in the live finals.

Tulisa will be hoping to repeat her success from last year where she won with girl group Little Mix.

Meanwhile Nicole will be keen to get off to a good start with the boys in her UK judging debut. Nicole does have mentoring experience though as she judged on last seasons X Factor USA.