Simon Cowell
- Profession: Music mogul
- Place/Date of Birth: Brighton, 07 October 2020
Simon Cowell is reportedly planning to quit making reality TV music shows - after Grease Is The Word comes to an end tomorrow evening.
The music mogul has said that he thinks the format of the show is too similar to X Factor.
The 47-year-old who will sit on the judging panel of
He slammed the BBC programme When Will I Be Famous? variety show, which aired in February to "trump" ITV1’s
He ranted: "We shouldn’t try to beat the BBC on those types of shows and they shouldn’t try to beat us with variety shows.
"If I thought it was a good show I wouldn’t have made ours. The problem is, if you say, ’Here are 12 singers you will like’ it won’t work."
He also added that people couldn’t connect with the acts on When Will I Be Famous?. He said: "Look what happened with Graham Norton’s show. I can’t even remember what it was called. I didn’t buy into it."
Simon and Louis make up - May 29 2007
Television’s squabbling twosome Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh appear to have made up after Simon was handed the Big Red Book in ITV’s This Is Your Life.
The pair always played Punch and Judy for the crowds on the X Factor but things turned ugly when Louis blamed his pal for giving him the sack from the show.
Louis said of the sacking: "I was axed from the X Factor, stabbed in the back. The buck stops with Simon. He hires and he fires."
Simon said he aims to put the experience to good use in a TV drama about two feuding TV talent show judges: Rock Rivals, the latest show from Footballers’ Wives creators Shed Productions.
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Starting in 1979 with EMI Music Publishing, Cowell (42) got a taste for what the public wanted and it wasn’t long before he decided to take these qualities and put them to use for himself, setting up his own label, Fanfare, along with partner Iain Burton.
By 1989 BMG had offered Simon a position as A&R Consultant. It was a relationship which would prove to be hugely successful, profitable and enduring. Cowell has set-up his own label through BMG, S Records, reflecting the success and vision he has manifested.
Simon’s roster of signing reads like a who’s who of pop success stories over the last decade. Highlights include, Curiosity Killed The Cat, Sonia, and cornering the boy band market, bad boys of pop Five (who disbanded last year) and the global multi-platinum phenomenon, Westlife.
Always pop but never predictable, Simon has enjoyed some of his most successful signings by always keeping an eye firmly on the TV world, sensing a public following and always being the first knocking on the door. The Power Rangers, World Wrestling Federation, Zig & Zag and the Xmas Number 1 smash Teletubbies moved from the small box to the airwaves due to Simon, although, he claims his biggest shock success would come in the form of Robson & Jerome.
Making records and breaking them, in the last 10 years, Cowell has achieved sales of over 25 million albums, over 70 top 30 records and 17 number 1 singles.
Simon is currently a judge on the US version of Pop Idols and is busy looking after Will, Gareth and Sarah Watemore, who he signed to BMG after the show.
October 2007