American Idol Rejected by MTV, UPN, and Others

Simon Cowell faced substantial hurdles in finding a network executive to agree to air “American Idol,” with such flegling networks as UPN passing on it.

Photo: Simon Cowell, left, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson before judging a show in May 2004. Mr. Cowell is known for his sharp tongue, Ms. Abdul for being polite and Mr. Jackson for being affable.

Mr. Cowell said he had heard that line before â€” too many times for it to bother him during his sojourn in the United States trying to spark some American interest in this hot idea. He and Mr. Fuller and a third partner, yet another Simon â€” Simon Jones, an executive with Thames Television â€” had paid calls to the broadcast networks, to MTV and to other cable networks. Every one of them had a free shot that April at landing the show that the three Simons were putting on offer. No one showed the least interest, and many of the network executives offered shoulders so cold that Mr. Cowell could have chilled his wine on them. Uniformly, they had been, Mr. Cowell was convinced, the worst, most appalling meetings of his life.

The contrast with how “Pop Idol” had been sold in Britain could not have been sharper. Mr. Cowell and Mr. Fuller met with representatives of the British network ITV, spent what Mr. Cowell estimated was no more than 30 seconds describing the idea, and they had a deal. But, of course, the two Simons had enormous reputations in the British entertainment world, and they were entering a market that had already embraced music-oriented reality shows.

[...]

What Mr. Cowell told ITV was this: “It will have all the fun of ‘Pop Stars,’ but we can do it better. We can do it a lot harsher than on ‘Pop Stars,’ and the public will vote and choose the winner. And we won’t be relying on the music to make the show successful: it will be a soap opera.”

The key in finally getting an American network interested? Fox head Rupert Murdock’s daughter, Elisabeth, was a fan of the British version and begged her daddy to do it.

Mr. Murdoch put in a call the next day to Peter Chernin, his No. 2 at the News Corporation and the top decision-maker on all the biggest moves made by the Fox network. “What’s going on with this show ‘Pop Idol,’ Peter?” Mr. Murdoch asked Mr. Chernin. “It’s a big hit in England. I spoke to Liz and she says it’s great.”

Mr. Chernin was familiar enough with the situation to report that Fox’s network people had been talking about it with the agency, discussing potential advertising backers. “We’re still looking at it,” he said.

Mr. Murdoch shot back: “Don’t look at it. Buy it! Right now.”

This helps explain why Murdock is a gazillionaire who owns 3/4 of the world’s broadcast resources and the other networks continue to lose audience share.

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American Idol Rejected by MTV, UPN, and Others

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