MUST READ- How American Idol Almost Didn't Make It

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This is THE Best piece I've ever read about the beginnings of American Idol. It actually tells about Simon Cowell peddling American Idol to studio executives who didn't even respond because they thought American Idol was going to flop. It even tells about how Fox was going to change the format until Rupert Murdoch himself told them to leave it alone and copy the British format. Finally, it also tells about how Simon Cowell relunctantly tried out American Idol. Fantastic


April 30, 2006
How a Hit Almost Failed Its Own Audition
By BILL CARTER



Network television programmers face a challenging job, though not a complicated one: they need to find hits. That's why they spend millions to find and hire talented writers, actors and producers. In many cases they would be wiser to invest in a catcher's mitt, because really big hits, ones that can transform the fates of networks — and of network executives — tend to fall from the sky. Here is the story of how "American Idol," the biggest hit on television, hovered over every network in 2001, waiting for one of them to grab it. This article is adapted from "Desperate Networks" by Bill Carter, a reporter for The New York Times. Doubleday will publish the book on Tuesday.

SIMON COWELL sat at a meeting in Los Angeles with executives from someplace he had never heard of, something called the UPN network. Mr. Cowell, a British music executive, had never pitched a television show in America before — and the way things were going, he felt as though he never would again.

The UPN executives who sat across the table from Mr. Cowell at that meeting in April 2001 clearly had no clue who this guy was, and, apparently, even less interest in finding out. Maybe they knew his business partner, Simon Fuller, from his leadership of the Spice Girls. Surely, they had heard of the Spice Girls. But, then again, as Mr. Cowell checked those blank, uninterested faces, maybe not.

No matter. Mr. Cowell had enormous faith in the idea that he and Mr. Fuller had for a music-based television show. Mr. Fuller was the most successful manager of music acts in Britain and he, Mr. Cowell, was the most successful artist and repertoire man — that is, music label talent manager — currently working there. They both knew how to launch new singing artists, and now they had an idea for a show that would allow them to utilize their talents on camera.

Despite the wall he sensed going up at the UPN meeting, Mr. Cowell, never cowed, simply plowed ahead with his pitch. "What this is really about is the American dream," Mr. Cowell told the American executives in his smooth British tones. He laid out the format for the show that he and Mr. Fuller were calling "Pop Idol" in Britain, describing how exciting this show would surely be. When Mr. Cowell wrapped up his comments, the room went quiet — stone silent.

At the opposite end of the table, a young woman executive, whom Mr. Cowell had identified in his head as the "lippy second-in-command," seemed to be calculating whether or not this truly was the end of the presentation.

"And what exactly do you think we're supposed to be doing for you?" the woman said, dismissively.

"Well, actually, sweetheart," Mr. Cowell replied, applying just a dash of acid, "it's more a question of what I could be doing for you."

Again a terrible silence fell. Then the woman piped up: "Well, we'll get back to you."

Mr. Cowell said he had heard that line before — 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 — Simon Jones, an executive with Thames Television — 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 th