Entertainment

I tried out for ‘X Factor’ job

Vanessa Lachey didn’t have the “X Factor.

The new co-host of ABC’s “Wipeout” says she auditioned — and was turned down — for the hosting job on Simon Cowell’s Fox singing show.

“They went with a British guy [Steve Jones],” she sighed. “You can’t be more polar opposite, so I am okay with that.

“Now if the host was a brunette girl in her early 30s, I would be like ‘wait a minute!’ ”

Though it appears the “X Factor” gig may soon be open again, the former Miss Teen USA says she has no plans to try a second time. “I’m happy where I am at,” she tells The Post.

Lachey, 30, provides sideline commentary and interviews with contestants as they attempt to navigate “the world’s largest obstacle course.”

She was originally approached by “Wipeout” producers when the show launched in 2008, but chose instead to try her hand at acting — landing bit parts on “CSI: NY” and “How I Met Your Mother.”

The show hired former “Punk’d” personality Jill Wagner instead.

“Had I not passed on that I would never have had the four or five years of acting and classes and eventually getting married,” Lachey says.

“When this came around again it was like ‘This is meant to be.’ ”

For now, anyway.

Lachey — a former correspondent for “Entertainment Tonight” and host of MTV’s “Total Request Live” — says she and her husband (host of NBC’s “The Sing-Off”) are eager to start a family.

“That is one of the reasons we fell in love — our love of children,” she says.

“He and I have always talked about it and are excited. People get married and try to have kids.

“I am excited for that when it comes and, God willing, it will be around my ‘Wipeout’ schedule,” she says, “because I don’t want to be nine-months [pregnant] standing around the big red balls and laughing at people who are getting slammed in the stomach!”

(“Winter Wipeout” premieres Jan. 5 on ABC.)