Music TV Programming: October 2008

Simon Cowell’s reputation as television’s Mr Nasty betrays the business nous that he has used to build an entertainment empire on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr Cowell has positioned himself as both producer and judge on talent shows such as X-Factor, Britain’s Got Talent and Inventor. Through American Idol he has also become US television’s third-biggest earner. Last year he is estimated to have earned £22.5 million and his wealth is estimated at £100 million.

ONE night a little more than two years ago, Simon Cowell, the creator of and corrosive judge on the biggest show on television, "American Idol," was driving his car through the streets of London, thinking about the state of his entertainment-business interests. "I remember thinking: My gosh, I've sold a new talent show in Britain, and I'm taking 'Idol' off the air there. I'm launching a classical group called Il Divo. I'm changing the sound of the group Westlife, which had already sold 40 million records. And I was thinking: This could all come crashing down. This new show could fail. The classical group could fail. I could screw Westlife's career up. Why am I doing this, because it's going to be quite a high-profile bomb if that happens."
Mr. Cowell did not suffer self-doubt for long. "It was sort of a delicious thrill really," he said in his buttery British tones. "Making a lot of money usually means not putting your neck on the block anymore, but putting your neck on the block is part of the thrill. If I genuinely believe something is a good idea, then I'm willing to fail or succeed by giving it a go."

For once, Simon Cowell was putting it mildly. No one in entertainment, in either the United States or Britain, is giving the business more of a go than

Mr. Cowell, who, despite being the highest-paid star in the history of the Fox network, remains much more mogul than divo himself.

The recording industry executive "never had on my wish list" to be a television star. When he reluctantly agreed to judge a little talent show in England called "Pop Idol," it was just to protect his record label's interest in the winner. Today he still thinks of himself first as a businessman. That businessman is only too happy to collect millions for telling appallingly bad singers that they're rubbish; but his real goal remains something along the lines of worldwide control over musical and any other kind of talent you can think of — from inventors to magicians to plate spinners.

In a wide-ranging interview in a spectacularly elegant Manhattan hotel suite (what other kind would someone of his current state of fame be expected to inhabit?), a relaxed and — believe it or not — unassuming Mr. Cowell discussed the many tentacles of his growing empire, part of a company he calls Syco, which at the moment includes a record label and a television production unit, both of which are cranking out products at a larruping pace.

The reach of what might be called Simon Inc. is on an impressive scale. Mr. Cowell runs the careers of numerous recording artists, including the Irish band Westlife and Il Divo, the operatic, pop-singing quartet that has reached the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. His label sells millions of albums a year and will release five new titles in 2006. In addition, Mr. Cowell created a television show in England called "The X-Factor," which proved so popular it prevented the British version of "Idol" from getting back on the air, thus prompting a lawsuit against him. And he has, in some form of production or development, a total of no fewer than 11 television ("telly-vision," as he pronounces it) series for British and American networks.

And then there's the movie. "Basically an updated version of 'Fame,' " Mr. Cowell explained.

ALL of it begins, of course, with "America Idol," which, in its fifth incarnation on Fox, is reaching more than 30 million viewers each night it is on, and in the process is doing to the rest of television what Sherman did to Georgia. Having already buried every other competitor under ratings that are, against all odds, bigger this year than even the prodigious numbers it had previously rung up, "Idol" drove NBC's recent coverage of the Olympics into retreat, forcing that network to schedule its best winter events outside the hours of "Idol."
It seemed a perfectly wise decision. NBC could have offered America a night of naked ice dancing, and "Idol" fans would have preferred another dose of unknown teenagers singing their hearts out on cover versions of Michael Jackson and Mariah Carey.

One executive at a competing network (who did not want to be identified because it is never acceptable to be admitting defeat) said finding a show to face off against "Idol" has become akin to "going into a radioactive zone — anything you put there is going to get wiped out."

ABC made a rather frank admission of how formidable the task of taking on "Idol" can be when it promoted its new comedy "Sons & Daughters" during the Oscars telecast last week. The promotion said: "If you pick only one show to watch this spring, we assume if will be 'American Idol.' But since it's on almost every night, why not take a break and check out a show TV Guide calls fresh and painfully hilarious?" Kevin Brockman, the top corporate spokesman for ABC said: "You might as well embrace it. It's not like America doesn't know what's going on."

Mr. Cowell clearly relishes the continuing success of the reality talent show he and his partner, Simon Fuller, brought from their native England in 2002. "What for me makes 'Idol' so special is that under a reality banner so much of what we see today can't be considered reality," Mr. Cowell said. "Auditioning is reality. You win 'Idol,' the odds are you're going to get a career out of it."

But he emphasized that the reason he presides over "Idol" like Judge Dredd is that the winners join his label, which is under the aegis of BMG-Sony Music. "The only reason that I put myself through this pain is because my label gets the artist," he said. "Which is why I actually do care if I hate somebody or I actually like somebody."

"Idol" winners are signed for as many as five to seven albums. "We've sold 50 million records through 'Idol' alone in the last four years," he said. In England, the winner of this year's "X-Factor," a young singer named Shayne Ward, released a single (from Mr. Cowell's stable of songwriters) that sold a million units in a week. "He sang it on the finale," Mr. Cowell said. "We had it in the shops three days after the competition ended."

Perhaps his biggest music venture yet has been Il Divo, who are now packing concert halls, mainly with breathless female fans. Mr. Cowell said he came up with the idea one night several years ago while sitting in bed watching an episode of "The Sopranos," which he had heard much about but never seen. It was the episode when the gangsters go to Italy, and the voice of Andrea Bocelli plays behind many of the scenes.

"I literally sat up in bed," he said. "I was so mesmerized by this music against this imagery. I literally banged my forehead and said, 'Why don't we get four great opera guys together?' " An opera boy band, as it were.

Acknowledging that he knew nothing about the opera scene, Mr. Cowell said he enlisted several experts who told him it would take years to find four young, great-looking men with true opera voices for this kind of act. "I said, well, I've got years."

Almost three years later, he finally had his foursome: one from Spain, one from Switzerland, one from France, one from the United States. The first thing he had them sing was an opera-style rendition of "Unbreak My Heart" by Toni Braxton. "I never heard anything like it in my life," Mr. Cowell said. To date the group has released two albums — and sold 11 million.

"It's been especially good for me because when you're criticizing people on 'Idol," there's always people thinking: put your money where your mouth is," Mr. Cowell said. "So it was very satisfying. To put four unknown guys in front of the American public and have the album go to No. 1, that was very important for my validation, I think."

Still, as potent as the music business has been for him over the past five years, the television arm of Simon Inc. may have an even bigger upside. Mr. Cowell has three new series ready for three separate American networks. One for Fox, "Duets," sounds a little like "Singing With the Stars." Celebrities not known for singing will team up with professional singers. That one has yet to go into production.

The most immediate television venture will be "American Inventor" for ABC, with a premiere set for Thursday at 8 p.m. This one has the ring of "Idol" for the nerd set, with crackpot/genius inventors getting a chance to unveil their brainstorms (entries include a stun-gun-equipped glove and a portable fan for overheated dogs) in an audition setting. Then the finalists — as picked by a panel of experts — will get $50,000 to develop the idea and bring it to the next level.

The winner, determined as usual by audience phone-in vote, will be awarded a $1 million prize.

Mr. Cowell has a deal with Amazon to sell the winning product online. More significantly, he has a deal for himself to retain one-third of the invention's total profits. "We always try when we can to get a back-end participation," he said.

Of course, he will retain a similar interest in whoever wins his new program for NBC. Still untitled, the idea is to create an "American Idol" format for just about any other kind of talent.

"I'm just as interested to see an audition of a good and bad dog act as I am of a singer." Mr. Cowell said. "I promise you the auditions are going to be like something you have never seen before." Mr. Cowell likened the show, which he said he expects to have on NBC as early as June, to an old-fashioned talent office in New York in movies in the 1930's, where "any kind of act can walk in."

THAT would include singers, he said, but ones who don't qualify under the rules for "Idol." Thus, he said, "We will attract groups, and everything from 80-year-old singers or 8-year-old singers who think they are as good as Celine Dion." He stressed that the talent might be wide-ranging, but it had to be a specific act, capable of being presented on a stage in Las Vegas — because that's the prize.

"If you are a plate spinner on my show," he said, "you have to believe you can entertain a Vegas audience spinning your plates."

Craig Plestis, the top reality programming executive at NBC, said it took almost no time for Mr. Cowell to sell this show. "We sat down for lunch, then we saw a piece of tape and we were sold," he said.

Mr. Plestis said, "He definitely wants a hit on another network."

NBC could not have landed this project if Mr. Cowell's home network had not passed on it first. Under the deal Mr. Cowell signed late last year with Fox — which will net him more than $30 million a year — committing him to five more years of judging the wailers and warblers on "Idol," he agreed to give Fox a "first look" at all his new show ideas.

"I don't think they thought it through enough," Mr. Cowell said of Fox's decision to pass on the new talent series. He acknowledged that Fox might be reluctant to add talent contests that could in any way dilute the huge "Idol" franchise, but added, "If it's a hit, it's their loss." Not that he has any dispute with his Fox employers. To the contrary, Mr. Cowell said, "They have been incredibly decent and supportive to me."

It was mainly that relationship with Fox, Mr. Cowell said, that led him to settle the suit over "The X-Factor." Simon Fuller had alleged that Mr. Cowell stole the idea for that show from "Idol," then, because he starred in it, the original could never get back on the air. "It was settled amicably, but I do not like being called publicly somebody who steals," Mr. Cowell said. "You can't say, 'I own talent shows forever.' That's rubbish."

The invention show has also attracted a suit from a television production company in Minnesota, which claims it has produced a similar program for years. Mr. Cowell said he had never seen or heard of such a show.

Even with all these series backing up on the runway, Mr. Cowell said he had real regrets about one that would not be turning up on American television. In his deal with Fox, Mr. Cowell had to agree not to sell "The X-Factor" to an American network. Fox, in essence, paid him to keep that show off the air, fearing it could undermine some of the appeal of "Idol."

"If I say so myself, 'X-Factor' is a great show," Mr. Cowell said. "It's hilarious. I absolutely love it. Would it have been a hit in America? A million percent a hit."

More at http://www.people.com/people/simon_cowell