Simon Cowell is on the phone, and I can’t believe my ears. “American Idol’s” former king of mean is not hissing and seething and spewing snarky insults. He’s not telling me that my questions are boring him to tears.
No, just the opposite. He’s polite. Charming. A real pussycat.
Could it be that he’s more relaxed now that he’s not in the constant company of Ryan Seacrest? Has the time away from the “Idol” judges table mellowed him? Perhaps.
More likely, he knows he needs to sell a glitzy new show, “The X Factor,” and that the stakes are very high.
“I missed dealing with you guys,” he says. “Really, I have.”
Simon has been fervently hitting the phones and pounding the pavement to pump up “The X Factor.” On Tuesday, he even did a live Twitter chat. The musical talent show doesn’t start until fall on Fox, but auditions get underway in Los Angeles this weekend, and he’s doing his best to ensure that interest is high.
“I haven’t got a clue how it will go, and that’s somewhat distressing,” he says. “We could have one person show up or 10,000. And unless you’ve got great contestants, you haven’t got anything. It’s the one thing out of my control.”
“The X Factor,” a British import on which Simon is a judge and executive producer, has already seized some attention with the news that it will offer television’s biggest prize ever — a $5 million recording contract — to its winner. And earlier this month, the show made a high-profile hiring when music mogul Antonio “L.A.” Reid signed on as a judge.
As of this writing, no other “X Factor” judges had been announced, but the names being dropped included George Michael, Mariah Carey, Nicole Scherzinger and, yes, Simon’s old sparring partner, Paula Abdul. On this subject, Simon played coy, saying only that an announcement would be forthcoming.
Addressing his role on “The X Factor,” Simon insisted that fans will see a much more driven judge than the one who essentially phoned it in last season on “Idol.”
“I admit it, I was bored, and that wasn’t fair to the contestants, the show or the audience,” he says. “I had lost Paula, and I was trying to fit in with something that didn’t feel right. I found it really difficult to hide my feelings.”
As for the new-look “Idol,” with judges Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, Simon says television’s most popular show made smart moves.
“They’ve got judges who are engaged and who want to be there,” he says. “They’re bringing a new energy that’s good for the show.”
