Simon Cowell Offered Big Money to Stick with Idol
The New York Post reports this morning that Simon Cowell, who is in the midst of renegotiating his American Idol contract beyond the 2010 season, has been offered between $100 million and $144 million per year.
The figures come from London newspaper, The Guardian:
A source close to Fuller says that Cowell has already been offered three to four times the $36m he was paid for American Idol in 2008 – but then, he is the most important person on the show and the series makes $900m a year and attracts audiences of 25 million.
Those figures sound reasonable to me. I could see Fuller offering to make Simon and his production company Syco, a partner in the show.
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52 Responses to “Simon Cowell Offered Big Money to Stick with Idol”
I agreed all season with Slezak’s criticism of Simon, it’s so obvious that he’s stuck in another musical era, one were Mariah, Whitney and Celine are all playing endlessly on the radio…his criticism of Allison and the OTT praise for Danny (Vocal Masterclass? What!!!) was proof that he lost his touch…
i can’t even wrap my brain around that kind of money. but living on a grad school stipend makes anything above the poverty line seem like a fortune (hello fellow grad schoolers that commented :bye_tb:)
im pretty sure if they tried hard enough they could find someone that would be a decent replacement. the replacement would cause buzz the first few episodes to see how/if he/she could replace simon and then if they picked someone good the person would still hold peoples’ attention on their own accord after that. there’s no way he is worth 100 million. that’s just ridiculous.
No, Danny’s YASB was Masterclass. Masterclass Lady said said so herself.
Simon has a good ear. I just can’t stand how rude he is to contestants sometimes.
Simon worth $144M a year? That would be far more than the entire rest of the AI cast, crew and staff combined!!! Also that means he would make more in one episode than most of us would make in our lifetimes!
I wonder if the time has come to say goodbye to him…
of course, i think his comment on this girl during the audition round “it was like a cat on top of the empire state building and the noise it makes before it hits the ground” is worth $100 million :wink1_tb:
Even though I think the show would die or at least become severely weakened w/o Simon, I *do not* think he is worth $144M a season especially considering the half-assed job he turned in this year. What a ridiculously large amount of money.
I don’t think Simon is worth this money. I’m not sure fans would leave if Simon left. Yes, some would go (that always happens), but Simon’s judging this year was boring. He was either yeah or neah and not even very interesting or funny about it. He seemed bored the entire season with rare moments of interest. I don’t think he liked the 4 judge format and sulked on that the entire season. And it did not help that Kara was saying more constructive things (once she got past her wordiness and numbers problem).
I do agree that Simon has a very good ear. I just wish he would have showed more interest and commented more this season.
If the show is 4 judges next season, and it sounds like it will be, then I am all for a 1.5 hours. They did not end on time once all season. If they have to add time to have them end on time then I’m all for it. And maybe we will get more songs out of the Idols later in the competition. (though my fast forward on my dvr will just be busier I’m sure).
My biggest critique this year may be that they spent WAY too much time on all the judges, Simon included (and, to be fair, he usually talked less than Paula or Kara).
But still, if one thing could change next year, it would be to have more time with the contestants (either backstory, especially in the early rounds) or actual SINGING (what a concept!) than wasting time with the judges stupid antics. Those few middle rounds where they kept running over time-wise were just ridciculous = we had shorter and shorter songs, but more and more judge ramblings that weren’t particularly amusing or useful.
Wow, that’s a lot of money, but the show wouldn’t work without Simon IMO.
That is an obsence amount of money, but this is a capitalist society, so truthfully, since they don’t turn surplus money back to the viewers they might as well give it to those instrumental in making the show a success. That would be Simon.
I could barely stand him myself this year, and I am a Simon fangirl, tight tees and all…he needs to step it up, or he will make himself obsolete. Anytime Paula is more lucid, makes you wanna go hmmmm.
A big part of Idol has always been a love/hate relationship with the judges . . . we enjoy it when they praise our favorites, but part of us loves it, or at least gets energized, when we think they’re wrong and we get to “defend” our favorites.
With Paula and Randy, being “wrong” is usually about being obtuse.
With Simon, two of his defining characteristics are his meanness and consistently narrow, trivial, out-dated musical taste.
These two characteristics would make him close to useless in the music biz off-camera, but on camera they have morphed from a bug into a feature. The fact that he dislikes most music and is interested only in marketability means he feels emotionally unrestrained in unleashing rude, memorable, sometimes funny, critiques.
And ironically, the fact that Cowell is so difficult to please, tempermental, bored, disinterested, and punishing has had the effect of making his occasional praise all the more sought after and valued.
And that’s been a whole part of the fascination he held for the audience. When he turns his harsh remarks on a poor or mediocre performance, we kind of enjoy seeing it taken apart.
But we’re historically even more sucked in when he turns his nastiness on a worthy or even great performance. Because it’s so unfair and horrible! Our outrage is part of the emotional drama that addicts us to the show and keeps us dialling. In the same way that dramas need villains–”Lost” is nothing without its heartless, evil Ben–Idol has thrived on subjecting its lovable, talented kids to Cowell’s myriad injustices so that we could become all the more invested in pulling for them.
That, however, was the Cowell “premise” of the past. The problem is, it’s long-since become a schtick. Repeating the exact same act on three different shows (Idol, X Factor, Britain’s Got Talent) in an era of widely circulated video clips, it’s apparent how cheap and thin his routine really is. There isn’t a facial expression, fake burst of indignation, fake moment of sincerity, that hasn’t been recycled over and over again on his shows. He can scarcely be bothered to make the puppet motions on the American show, forgetting the names of contestants, talking during the performances, not bothering to finish critiques so he can get in some petty quip with Abdul or Seacrest.
If TV rand like major league sports, 19E would decide this contract on a declining, past-his-peak, can’t-be-bothered star was way overpriced, and find out what fresh talent it could buy with its money. Since it’s broadcast TV, with its inherent conservatism, they’re likely to try to hang on to their formula till it dies off, even if it means handing half the profits to Cowell. Good deal for him, the utter twat.
I thought all the judges were odd this year. Many people stated Paula was on top of her game this year, but I felt she was a bit nuerotic. I DVR’d last nights show and Paula was kind to most of the contestants, even adorable Kris with his pitchy moments. Always makes me laugh. His enthusiasm and personality carried that off. I digress. When Paula was nearly in tears after Danny sang, already naming him as a finalist, Simon was level-headed enough to say that they were only three contestants in and she was calling the winner. And then again, with Adam the same statement of the finals and if I heard “soak it all in” while she waved her hand around to the audience one more time, I was going to scream. So for me season 8, Top 13 started off quite badly. The judges most certainly the reason for it. My daughter begged me to keep watching with her. I did, though, I already knew the outcome beforehand, Adam and Danny, if the judges had their way. But then, along came Kris… :::grin:::
Go Simon please go. I think he ruined the season for me. He was a big grump, who looked like he didn’t want to be there. He was just pimping his favorites.
Let’s be honest, people liked Simon because of his brutal honesty. Last year he was not honest at all. It pained him to give Allison or Kris a compliment.
Stick a fork in him, he’s done!!!
Thank you! The charm of the show is to find undiscovered talent…to see kids plucked from obscurity and progress each week w. more confidence. Last season was all about the judges and trying to outdo/outjoke each other….and their obvious lack of interest in the show resulted in their OFF BASE critiques.
I think Simon should get a large sum of that money as a BONUS, forcing him to actually care again about the show. He now needs to redeem himself after Lil’, Megan, JASMINE!!! WTF, and to some extent Danny.
Then again….Simon has always been a bit off the mark. He was lukewarm about Kelly, passed on Daughtry AND Cook, and never got Allison (or Kris).
Here is the value I do see in Simon. Some mentioned after the rerun of the top13 MJ tribute, that while Lil’s song was very good, Simon’s critique of her outfit may have hindered her in future weeks. I’m also wondering this about Matt. Poor Matt, he followed Adam and Simon had to point this out. To me Matt was wonderful, but different than Adam. I believe Lil and Matt may have let Simon’s remarks get under their skin. Simon has spoken about how tough the music industry is and how his failing in something early on made him work even harder. Perhaps Simon does weed out some of those who may not be able to handle critiques. I’m not saying this is a fact, but I can see how this could work.
Kris and Adam seemed to let most critiques roll off their, (imo esp. Kris since he received more) and press on to the following week to be even better. Even Adam in his intro vid from top13 said he didn’t think he would have been able to handle this kind of pressure some years earlier.
There might be some truth to that. As we have all seen, no matter who you are someone somewhere will always have something very harsh to say about you if you are in the public eye. If you don’t have the kind of personality to stay confident and keep going despite all the chattering and pressure, then the pop star life may not be for you. That may be one of the reasons 19 tends to pass on people we all think were sho-ins every year, and sign people we all say WTF too. LOL. Maybe some of those people are the ones who help up the best.
ITA.
I can see that…but he let Susan Boyle go on and she’s obviously unfit for the limelight, so while it’s maybe a beneficial “side-effect” I don’t think it’s Simon’s main goal.
I dunno. He was just “off” this year. IMO he certainly doesn’t merit a pay raise like THAT if we’re going by his performance this year.
I agree. I don’t think Simon is good at all at picking out the diamonds in the rough. He thought Kelly Clarkson was forgettable; he wouldn’t have even put Daughtry through to Hollywood; I can’t remember if he voted to put Cook through to Hollywood, but I know for sure that he voted to kick him out during the first H’wood round. So, yeah, I don’t really have much respect for his ability to pick out genuine, bankable musical talent.
I’d do it for half that….
Thank goodness for all the Simon hate…thought I was the only one grated by how bored and off he was all year. His comments aren’t even funny or interesting anymore…just mean and completely wrong! Anyone with me on nominating Jim Cantiello @ MTV for the open position?!? GO JC!!
Ryan accurately predicted the Top 4 on Top 13 week on Oprah, March 7th 2-1/2 months before the finale?:
http://www.rickey.org/?tag=oprah :bigsurprise_ee:
HOLY SHIT!
That’s a disgusting amount of money. All that to be mean and make fun of Paula? Wow.
Wow, I can’t believe those numbers. Idol must raking in the cash off these kids’ backs (and yes, I believe they understand that’s the tradeoff for the publicity).
I believe he should be paid more than the other judges, but that’s insane. Plus, he’s been increasingly bored and irrelevant the past couple of years.
Well, there’s a certain amount of truth to that. Was it not Simon who reportedly said that, as the season progresses, contestants should not expect fair judging? So-o-o, true Simon. But, why put limits on it?! You certainly didn’t last season!
And I agree that Simon is not very good at sussing out contestants who are diamonds in the rough or people who need a little time to find their groove on stage. (Remember? That’s what the semi-finals used to be all about before they turned them into “one strike and your out-a-here!”) Just look at the difference in Cook from “Happy Together” to “Hello.” However if you’re polished and “plant like” and ready to go, Simon’s your man!
I too feel “over” Simon. But I think it’s over for AI if he doesn’t re-up. He just seems to be an inevitable part of the mix for most people, and who else do you get to do what he does — snarky, smug and craven as it often is?
But the larger thing is the money. I’m just disgusted by it. We’re living in a period when millions of people can’t afford health insurance, and some can’t afford health care even if they do have insurance. Unemployment is high, people are losing their homes. And though Simon Cowell is certainly not responsible for the Wall Street mania that led to this, the culture of excess is disgusting under these circumstances.
Just as the absurd salaries that bankers and drug company CEOs and sports stars make me nuts, the celebrity gold rush has just gotten out of hand. What does Simon do with a salary that’s a thousand times what most people earn in a year of hard work? And what are we all paying to advertisers or whomever to make that salary possible?
The values here are seriously out of whack…. :thumbdown_tb: