Over the weekend Simon Cowell told British paper the Daily Mirror that if he could scratch projects off in either the UK or the USA, he'd scratch them off in the USA, hinting he'd leave American Idol and the USA behind.
"I don't want to come over as whiny because I am very grateful that I have got these jobs," he said. "But there is a point where I am not sure we can keep this schedule up.""Most people do one show a year and I do three and they involve a lot of traveling," he told the Mirror. "One may have to go ... I can't imagine not doing 'Britain’s Got Talent' and I can't imagine not doing 'X Factor.' But I guess America is more likely to go because I have got one year under contract. Maybe that will be the end."
I'd place the odds of that actually happening at zero. American Idol is still the most-watched television show, and especially so among the youth demos. At this point, here in the states, Cowell is synonymous
with American Idol. It does beg the question of whether Idol could survive without Cowell, but I expect we won't be finding that out next year, or the year after...
For some reason I can't embed this video, but it's a clip from one of Cowell's other gigs, Britain's Got Talent, and it is...amazing.
Wow, that clip really is amazing. So American Idol and Britain’s Got Talent air around the same time? How does Cowell possibly do both?
And considering the recent salary cut-backs in BritTV (when they weren’t even close in comparison to American series), he’ll never abandon Idol. Way too much money over here in the States.
That clip was frickin’ awesome…I thought it was some sort of self-indulgence horrible performance; she was REALLY REALLY good.
In fact I posted this on my blog afterwards.
I saw that clip yesterday, I was quite shocked myself while watching it.
Well, if Simon leaves American Idol, that basically spells the end of it. There is no way Paula, Randy and Kara can keep that alive without Cowell.
But if he does leave then, good bye reality tv, and hello scripted shows!…. Hopefully.
Julia, Britain’s Got Talent is usually recorded for auditions when American Idol is on air showing the auditions and the live shows usually take place a week or two after Idol finishes and are shown over one week because of Piers’ commitment to America’s Got Talent and The X Factor has its auditions between May-August and the live shows don’t start till November which means he has time to film auditions for American Idol between September-November.
Hope that helps.
Jon, so this was an audition, not a live show? Sorry, I don’t know how Britain’s Got Talent works. Idol won’t be over until May. Do they have a month of auditions?
I don’t think he would care about making as much money as possible, he doesn’t need to be in any shows to earn a fortune. It’s tricky to compare becauses he gets money in other ways than just appearing, but he gets $30m for britain’s got talent and x factor for 3 years. I think he get $40m for one year of idol.
Britain’s got talent is only on for a month, it seems he will want to pick between x factor and idol. both would be just as big without him I think
Yes it was auditions, they do 11 days of auditions spread over 7 weeks on tv
Britain’s Got Talent 2009 kicked off on April 11 and there will be seven audition shows on consecutive Saturdays before a week of nightly shows so fans can pick two finalists who will battle it out on May 30 2009.
wow, that clip was so amazing.
I think if Cowell were to quit any of his shows it would probably be Britain’s Got Talent. His role on the show could easily be replaced by The Hoff who is probably the best judge on America’s Got Talent.
Off-topic but Simon Cowell uses the judges from The X Factor on international versions of Got Talent. Sharon Osbourne used to do The X Factor and does America’s Got Talent and Dannii Minogue does Australia’s Got Talent. I wouldn’t be surprised if Cheryl Cole ends up replacing Sharon on America’s Got Talent next year.
This is just a negotiating tactic by Simon. “Pay me more money!” is a better way of putting it. It is like how every actor that played James Bond publicly stating he’s done with the franchise to get paid more money to do “just one more” Bond movie.
If I was Fox, I would play hardball with Simon right on the show. Have people audition to be on the panel. LOL Hell, make it another Idol series that follows the two each week. Have contestants judge the last two shows and do their level best for a spot. Make the entire panel up for replacement. Or I’d at least float the idea to give Simon a reality check. While he might not need more money, he surely loves to have more and I think his ego couldn’t stand the loss of Idol.
Idol may pay him more upfront atm but with X-Factor and Got Talent its his company that produces it and he owns the rights to the format so he gets more control over it and is probably worth more overall than his idol contract. Infact without his idol contract it would maybe open up more opportunities for him (I believe his last Idol contract was signed at the end of Season 4, the season he took every opportunity to refer to contestants having the X-Factor while he was trying to sell the X-factor in the states. The producers threatened to sue him over it if I recall and in the end it was made a contract condition that he would stop selling the format in the states. When the contract expires he would probably be able to start selling it again)
@Jon: There is some cross over as both Idol and X-Factor auditions do mention him returning from work in the other country. They are obviously timed to be as little impact on each other but doing that many shows especially when Idol and X-Factor both have a number of ‘judges’ audition stages to go through where they do overlap
Simon COW can get whatever he wants as long as he brings in the big bucks.
Cant stand the man, but he is successful! Cant deny that. Is Alan Thicke’s evil twin from “Growing Pains”.
Its a bit of a fairy tale that clip – I suspect we’ll hear a lot more of her in the future.
Cowell does juggle his schedule for the various shows well in comparison to Len and Bruno who have to fly back and fourth from LA to London to do Dancing in the Stars and Strictly Come Dancing in the Autumn which must be tiring but it pays well and it’s the nature of the business.
I remember reading that FOX bought the rights to The X Factor just to bury it and Simon Fuller who creates and whose company produces the various Idols bought a stake in The X Factor after he settled a case of copyright infringement with Cowell.
My brother pointed me in the direction this clip earlier on. Pretty much left my parents speechless too.
I’d love to see her win and perform presumbly at the Royal Variety Performance.
I imagine that American Idol can go on without Simon. It won’t be the same but it would go on.
I still believe the heart of the show are the singers. When I’m at work, the talk is usually about the singers.
Simon please leave American Idol!
bhè without simon, american idol will lose some pubblic, its already losing pubblic! i think that the show will be off in 2-3 years, and then, what fox will do without its #1 hit show/lead-in??
I tend to agree with Robert on this – I think there’s very little chance Cowell would quit Idol and I suspect this is the start of contract negotiations. Cowell likes success in America too much to quit Idol unless he has another show in the pipeline for US television in which case Fox might want to be a little worried about it. Plus he’s found being on Idol has helped him to launch various UK acts into the US market easier.
For the person that said it think the chances of Cowell leaving Britain’s Got Talent are about zero as well. If he’s going to ditch any of his shows (and I don’t think he will) it’ll be The X-Factor especially since that’s the one that primarily clashes with American Idol. Its fairly obvious just from the way he is on television let alone anything else that Cowell prefers Talent to The X-Factor and he should because its by far and away the better show. The [insert country here] Got Talent format is fantastic in ways that Idol and The X-Factor never can be.
And Jon from what I can remember Fox haven’t brought the rights to The X-Factor but that part of Cowell’s deal to do Idol (and possibly his settlement with Fuller during their court case) was that he couldn’t bring the show to America – although I do remember rumours that Cowell was shopping the show to various networks a few years ago.