American Idol is an unstoppable force in a world where such things almost never exist.  Ratings dominance like Idol's is a feat rarer than a Yeti snowball fight.  The reasons something becomes a national phenomenon are impossible to calculate in any real verifiable way, but there are key cogs to its continued success, and one of the major ones is Simon Cowell, the English tight shirt-wearing curmudgeon, who sits at a table and crushes young singers' dreams of stardom.  For his services, FOX cannot pay him enough.  Nigel Lythgoe, former executive producer of American Idol, who left the show in the summer to focus more on So You Think You Can Dance (a series on which he inhabits the Simon archetype), recently had something to say about Simon and what FOX pays him to do what he does.  Some would call Lythgoe's words harsh or critical, but I'm not really sure what he's getting at.  Judge for yourself:

"[Jackson and Abdul's] salary has never been advertised and Simon has been in Forbes, which is why I am talking about it," Lythgoe said while speaking at a conference in Australia.  According to Lythgoe, Cowell's going American Idol rate is "something like $22,000 per minute."  If the current economic crisis has hurt your checkbook, you may want to stop reading right now.  Estimating what Cowell pulls in per year on American Idol, Lythgoe said this: "I think Simon is now earning something like $36 million a year from Fox alone...”

None of this is really big news.  Why some might deem it important is because Lythgoe's departure from Idol is widely considered to be a result of money issues.  But, Lythgoe understands the deal: while no one truly deserves such a salary for anything (unless they're curing cancer or able to turn dirt into oil), whatever FOX pays Simon Cowell, they can afford it.  He's kind of like Michael Jordan in his prime.  No matter what FOX pays Simon Cowell, it makes sense.  American Idol is so popular and makes so much money, that it doesn't do anyone any good to risk losing a key cog like Cowell.  Other parts can be replaced.  Not Cowell. 

Season 8 of American Idol will premiere on FOX this coming January.


-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
Source: E! Online
(Image Courtesy of FOX)