The latest season of Simon Cowell’s U.K. talent show X Factor (a U.S. version will be launching in the fall of 2011) is off to an dubious start, after it was revealed that the show has been using Auto-Tune to make the contestants sound better. Saturday’s season premiere featured an 18-year-old who warbled “Walking On Sunshine†and was voted through to the next round after Cowell called her “very talented.†But fans (with surprisingly finely-tuned ears) had a hunch something was amiss, and claimed on Facebook that they could hear Auto-Tune at work during her performance. And now the show has issued a statement that post-production work was in fact utilized to “deliver the most entertaining experience possible for viewers.†If this is the stance taken for the American version, Ke$ha and T-Pain are suddenly looking like front runners for the judges’ seats. [Deadline]