American Idol Makes $900 Million A Year, And Simon Cowell Wants $144 Million Of It

Not bad work if you get it. Especially since it's basically just giving pithy comments once per week to a dozen or so contestants lasting about 1-2 minutes each. But they will pay it because without Simon the show would undoubtedly lose some of its current popularity:


http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/06/30/american-idol-makes-900-million-a-year-and-simon-cowell-wants-144-million-of-it/21638

Cowell, who reportedly made $36 million last year for judging the hit competition show, has been offered three or four times that amount — between $100 million and $144 million per year — by co-producers Fox and 19 Entertainment to stick with “Idol” when his contract expires next May, according to The Guardian, a London newspaper.

While $36 million may seem like a lot of money for five months worth of snarky comments and eye-rolls, it’s only a fraction of the estimated $900 million that “Idol” rakes in a year. As the lynchpin of the show — without him there would be no one to hate and no dramatic tension with Paula Abdul — Cowell believes he’s due for a raise.

though I'll admit that I've never seen the show.

Hey, it's a "bank of talent." The bush bankster bailout will be glad to pay.

Why not?

Or, rather, they spend more time doing the actual work Simon gets to critique for 5 seconds.

So there must be more to it than the contestants.

It says a lot about our society when we excuse the craven greed of the already wealthy but damn those who think an enterprise making $900 million per year shouldnt share that with those who actually do all the work.

I also think there's a whole lot of entrants who haven't received an honest appraisal of their musical ability until they go before Simon Cowell.

So let Simon Wanker leave.

Battle of the greedy do-nothings.

I love it. :D

:popcorn:

That's seriously fucked-up

If this were a fake sitcom, that's the context. Fiction. One can do what they want. In this case, it's real people or people who think they're real. if people can't see the difference, they're fools. No fiction about that.

This is just a reflection on what society considers valuable.

Take them to the cleaners, Simon.

And I think my pithy humor is well known around here.

He's just about the only thing mildly interesting about the show.