Exclusive Interview: Simon Cowell

Simon Cowell has become a household name because of his honest and often bruising remarks on the talent-competition shows American Idol and The X Factor. What is less known among the general public is his indisputed ability as an entrepreneur and a long career during which he has honed his laser-sharp eye on spotting talent and identifying opportunities in the music and television businesses.
He got his first job in the music business at EMI Publishing in London. As his career progressed, he became an A&R (artist & repertoire) executive and went on to found several record labels. In 2001, he was asked to be a judge on a singing competition show in Britain called Pop Idol. American Idol launched the following year and Cowell’s position as one of the best-known TV personalities on the planet was secured.

But being a judge is only part of his transatlantic career. In 2002, he founded Syco with Sony Music Entertainment and is responsible for some of the biggest acts in the last decade, including Leona Lewis, Westlife and Il Divo. He is also the entrepreneurial force behind the Susan Boyle phenomenon. The somewhat frumpy-looking middle-aged Scottish woman first appeared on Britain’s Got Talent in April 2009. Her video went viral on YouTube and she became an overnight sensation. In November 2009, Cowell’s record label released Boyle’s CD I Dreamed a Dream and it became one of the fastest-selling female artist debut albums in music history.

This is a perfect example of Cowell’s business acumen: create a show that introduces new talent, spot the best, release a CD with them, then use television, music and live concerts to synergistically promote the talent and help drive CD sales. And speaking of sales, over the last 15 years, Cowell’s artists have achieved sales of more than 150 million albums with more than 100 number one records.

Cowell has been making headlines all year, since it was announced that he will not be returning as a judge on American Idol for its tenth season. Instead, he is working on a U.S. version of The X Factor, which will be premiering on FOX in 2011. He’s tight-lipped at the moment about his plans for the show but promises it will be better than any other show he’s ever done. That’s his mantra—always setting the bar higher. And it’s always served him and his business partners very well. In fact, Tony Cohen, the CEO of FremantleMedia—the company which co-produces The X Factor (in the U.K. and soon the U.S.), Britain’s Got Talent, America’s Got Talent (with Syco) and American Idol (with 19), as well as sells the finished versions and licenses and produces the formats of these shows around the world—has this to say about Cowell, “He is, in my mind, an unprecedented phenomenon. I can’t remember, in all my years in television, somebody who has had that degree of creative and commercial success both in the U.S. and the U.K. We’ve had a tremendous partnership with him, one based on our respect for his extraordinary talent, and on his appreciation for the talent and quality we bring to the productions that we do with him and our ability to build global brands around his shows. He always challenges himself to do better creatively and commercially. He is relentless on himself and he challenges us, too. It’s why we find him such a real inspiration.”

WS: What can you tell us about the U.S. version of The X Factor, which will premiere next year on FOX?
COWELL: Not much. Number one because I don’t think you should advertise what you are going to do in advance because it’s a teensy-weensy bit competitive out there at the moment. But secondly, genuinely, we have to make this up partly on a month-by-month basis because of how things change. But look, the most important thing is that I have got to assemble a team of people here, which sets out on a mission statement. And the mission statement is, I will find and make a bigger star than any other show has done before. And if I don’t believe that is possible, I won’t do it.

WS: That’s quite ambitious, given what you have already accomplished.
COWELL: You’ve got to set your sights high, and I’ve always said, you can die trying! The alternative to that is to say, I’d like to find somebody who is not as successful! I just can’t work like that—that would be just crazy!

WS: When you look for that very elusive star quality, what elements do you look for? And is skill the most important factor, or does a person also have to have a style that is relevant to the times?
COWELL: You make a very good point with that latter [question]. I think you have to look at it on an annual basis, because as you said, tastes change. If you look at the pop music world today, it’s completely influenced by Lady Gaga, Glee, Katy Perry. Two years ago it was a very different landscape. So you have to take those factors into account when you are casting for a new show. And the reason we call the show The X Factor is it’s [about] more than just a singing voice, because if it were only [about] a singing voice, we could just as easily make a show where contestants send in tapes and we listen to the voices. It’s charisma, personality, being unique, entertaining, all those things rolled into one.

WS: If we look at American Idol, Got Talent and The X Factor, what can you say about their ability to reinvigorate a broadcast network? What has American Idol done for FOX; what has The X Factor done for ITV?
COWELL: I think the honest answer is what you do for each other because when you first walk in the door, you need the broadcasters a lot more than they need you. Then you reach a point where the relationship becomes a lot more balanced. My attitude has been, with any broadcaster you work with, it has to work as a partnership and if it’s not a partnership, it won’t work. And you’ve got to stay loyal to that partner, and as we’ve shown over the years, we’ve pretty much stayed with the same network, unless they didn’t want one of our shows and we’ve gone elsewhere. It’s a people business and I like the people at ITV and FOX. I’m genuinely happy with what they have given me and I’m incredibly grateful, daily, I’m grateful!

WS: On the other hand, what does the popularity of these shows say about people’s desire or need to have their 15 minutes of fame? When you and I grew up there was no Internet or Twitter or Facebook. Has the need to be known grown because the media landscape offers more outlets, or have your shows tapped into something that has been there all along?
COWELL: I feel one feeds the other. When we recognized that these shows were popular, more and more people wanted to be famous, so it was the right time to make these shows. So I think one feeds the other. The other point is that most celebrities you see on TV are boring, whereas reality-show contestants are interesting.

WS: In talent competition shows, at times the interaction between judges overshadows the performances of the contestants. What do you feel is the proper role for a judge?
COWELL: You make a very good point there. We have gotten into the habit, and obviously I’m partly responsible for this, of the judges’ personalities being talked about more than the contestants, and therefore the new judges are going into these roles as kind of bad actors rather than what we should be doing for a living. For me the most important criteria for sitting on a judging panel is, do you actually know what you are talking about? That should be the most important thing and that goes back to my point earlier on celebrities versus normal people, which is I’m finding more and more now that a lot of celebrities, because they are too nervous to be outspoken, are actually quite boring compared to people who don’t care. In other words I don’t want to be lectured by people, I’m actually curious as to what real people have got to say and I’m finding that more and more and more now.

WS: In an interview you gave after the elections in the U.K., you said you might like to do a show that would bring to light some of the issues that are most important to Britons. Is that something that you would really like to do?
COWELL: I thought about it. I’m probably feeling more now, having experienced it a tiny bit myself, that I’m not sure that I should be anywhere near politics. I think I’m great at making entertainment shows—it’s a lot more fun. Even though I sometimes fantasize about making something more serious, I think at the end of the day I’m always going to stick to entertainment.

WS: The Internet brought the music industry to its knees. How do you see the state of the music industry today?
COWELL: I think essentially you’ve got to look at what’s happening in a positive rather than a negative way. My first thought would be that a record label can’t be a record label in the old-fashioned sense anymore. A record label has to be involved in different aspects of an artist’s earnings, otherwise it’s not going to work. The good news is the fact that you’ve got this global promotion available at the touch of a button [through the Internet]. Years ago, it used to take months or years to get people around the world to know your artist, but as we’ve shown with Susan Boyle, within a week, 150 million people saw our artist. That is pretty staggering, and if you can’t use it to your advantage, you are an idiot!

WS: You have a 360-degree approach to establishing and promoting your artists, and Susan Boyle is a perfect example: you have the TV shows, you’re able to release the CDs and you have concerts. Tell us how you secure exposure in today’s really crowded media landscape.
COWELL: What I have to do is what we ask our contestants to do—you’ve got to stand out from the crowd. And it’s hard because you are fighting through an awful lot of competition. But I’ve always believed this, whether it was 20 years ago or yesterday, if it’s good and the quality is good, it will find its way to the top naturally. You don’t have to worry that much and freak out about marketing and promotion. I’ve never blamed a flop record or a flop TV show on the fact that it wasn’t promoted properly. It came down to the fact that it was rubbish.

WS: What projects are in the works at Syco Television?
COWELL: We have a team that has spent months and months and months working on these shows. It’s a great development department. It’s a combination of experienced and young people. What tends to happen is that they will start with five, six or seven viable ideas and then we will greenlight the ones we think should go into production, and at the moment we just greenlit three ideas. I’ve got to decide which network we think may like them, et cetera, et cetera, but I’m happy with them.

WS: Are you also producing films?
COWELL: No, we’ve never made a movie. We’ve been approached by lots of people to make movies. If we are going to go into the movie business we have to do it in exactly the same way as we did the TV business, which is we’ve got to find a great partner and they’ve got to teach us, ’cause I haven’t got a clue how to make a movie.

WS: Tell us about your philanthropic work. How did it come about and how do you find time for it? You have so much on your plate already.
COWELL: It’s a good question. I didn’t work out a plan when I started to make some money. Obviously I got approached by a lot of people who needed help. In the end I put it down to two main [causes], kids’ charities and animal charities, which I care a lot about. You can’t help everybody; you just have to realize that, so I tend to get involved with charities that obviously need help. Apart from helping out financially, I try to do things where I can help get more money and draw more attention [to the cause] with the time I have available, and I like doing it.

I’ve got to tell you, if you get involved in charity, what it does to you as a person—if you go down to rescue shelters to see some of the animals, or you go down to the hospices where we do some work, and you meet kids who are in a pretty bad way, but incredibly fun to be with—it’s a leveler.

WS: You will be presented the Founders Award at the International Emmy Awards Gala in November. What meaning does this award have for you and what does it say about your body of work?
COWELL: It may sound like a bit of a cliché, but it is genuinely true that I am accepting this award on behalf of the producers I have worked with over the years. Because if anybody thinks this is down to me, they are sorely mistaken! [Laughs] I work with a ton of talented people who work longer hours than I do, and the award will go to them. It’s like the whole team is getting the award, that’s how I look at it.

WS: You must be on planes all the time. What do you do to relax?
COWELL: I stopped with all the traveling because I think that is a killer. Sitting in a plane all the time is the most appalling experience on earth. I hate it. So I tend not to do it too much. I stay in one place and I will work till five or six in the morning if I need to, probably five days out of seven days, making sure that I am in contact with London and America. And I do most of my work from about 1:30 a.m to 2 a.m. I like it there.

WS: Fewer distractions at that time?
COWELL: Fewer distractions and I enjoy what I do. I say to all of the people who work with me now that if you don’t want to do this, if you don’t think you can make it better than last year, just shelve it, leave, do something else. Most people work at what they like doing.

WS: Is there anything you’d like to do that you haven’t had the chance to do yet?
COWELL: I’m asked that question—is there anything I’d like to do. I don’t ever want to make a fool of myself, and that goes back to the point about movies. I’ve seen so many people screw up in an area because they think it’s easy. It’s not easy. If I do something I want it to be the best, and I’ve always had that attitude. I don’t do anything to get the silver or the bronze medal. I find that depressing. So I would only ever do something new if I knew I could do better than who’s doing it now. That’s why I enjoy it—that’s why I like that challenge.