In what the Associated Press on Monday described as "the biggest threat yet to what has consistently been the country's top-rated TV program and a true cultural force," Simon Cowell confirmed Monday that he will not return to American Idol after this season. Instead, he said, he will produce and appear as a judge on an American version of The X Factor, whose principal difference from Idol is that it allows singing groups and older performers to compete. Appearing before television critics at their annual winter "tour" in Pasadena, CA, Cowell said that he "was offered a lot of money to stay on" -- he already is the highest-paid television performer on U.S. television, reportedly earning $36 million a year. However, he said, "I wanted to do something different. I wanted a new challenge." For Fox, the loss of Cowell on Idol would appear to pose little threat to its overall ratings. The network has, after all, agreed to carry The X Factor . "We're not losing Simon Cowell," Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly remarked. "We're potentially gaining another big headache for [Fox's competitors] in the fall." Network executives said that they plan to schedule Idol from winter to spring, So You Think You Can Dance in the summer, and X Factor in the fall. On her syndicated afternoon talk show, Ellen DeGeneres, who is replacing Paula Abdul on Idol , said that she was "very, very sad to see him go, because I think he's made the show what it is." Speculation continued to grow that DeGeneres could replace Cowell as the "focus" of the judging panel.
12/01/2010
