All About Simon

Last night, Idol hopeful Chris Sligh made mention of Il Divo and Teletubbies in a Simon Cowell dig that made the whole room rather uncomfortable - Simon most notably... It left me scratching my head, so I decided to do a little looking into it. Here's what I found:

by Rodney Ho
On the airplane, Delta aired “Simon Cowell: True Hollywood Story.” So I started jotting notes. Why not? I hadn’t seen it before.

His dad tried to get him into construction. But he got a job as a runner at a TV studio earning $30 a week, then the mailroom at EMI Records and clawed his way up. In 1982, he joined a label and just as he signed up his first artist Sinitta (who became his girlfriend), the owner shut it down. He convinced the guy to give him $7,500 and he ended up getting her a top 2 single “So Macho.” Then she became a star with a song called “Toy Boy” ; (though not in the States. I;ve never heard of her!).

In 1989, the label he built up was bought out and the big company went bust. “When it went down, I went down,” Cowell said, “I owed the bank millions of dollars. I didn’t have a job.”

His mom Julie Cowell allowed him to move back to his parents’ house. Two years later, he joined BMG Records in the A&R department. He convinced the World Wrestling Federation to release successful records. He did soundtracks for the Teletubbies and the Power Rangers. He jumped to RCA. People thought he was insane for the pure cheesiness of it all. He even got two actors to sing “Unchained Melody,” which went No. 1 for seven weeks. No wonder that’s one of his favorite songs of all time!

He missed out on signing the Spice Girls. Instead, he found an Irish boy group Westlife, which he said sold 50 milion records and had 14 no. 1 singles. Obviously, that is yet another act that didn’t make any impact stateside.

Then he was asked to join a show called Pop Stars to be a judge. At first, he felt uncomfortable and backed out. He called a meeting with Simon Fuller producing a series of their own. They tweaked the process and created “:op Idol.” He still resisted being a judge but took on the challenge. Pete Waterman, his protégé, was supposed to be the nasty one and Simon expected to be the expert. It October 6, 2001, it debuted and was an instant hit. Simon became an instant star. He was dubbed “Mr. Nasty.”

Fox purchased the show and asked for Simon to do the same thing there. He was, well, reluctant again. In the spring of 2002, Simon said working with Paula at first was like “a dog and a cat together and shaking them in a box.” Ryan Seacrest said he didn’t think Simon would work.

When Simon started ripping into contestants, Paula and Randy were in shock. “Simon had me in tears and I felt so bad for these kids,” Paula said. “I became violently ill.”

Simon said he thought he’d be kicked out in three weeks. But he won fans — lots of them. “I try to say what people are thinking.”

In 2003, Simon renewed his contract for 3 more years at $150,000 per episode. He decided to go into TV production. His first show: Cupid. But the dating show died after 11 episodes. Over on the UK, he launched “X Factor” in 2004 and dwarfed “Pop Ido1.” In “X Factor,” the judges competed for talent.

Simon Fuller, who created Idol, sued Simon Cowell, saying he ripped off his show. They ultimately settled out of court and he gave Fuller an ownership cut of “X Factor.”

In 2005, he signed on to another five years for $30 million a year. He added “American Inventor” to his resume, then “America’s Got Talent.” He also introduced the pop classical musical act Il Divo.