Simon Cowell turned down $100 million to stay at “American Idol,” a source told Page Six, and he now wants to hire music mogul Tommy Mottola as a judge on his new show, “The X Factor.”
But Cowell insists there are no hard feelings over his leaving to bring over his British smash-hit, “X Factor” in 2011. He told us, “If I thought it would lead to the death of ‘Idol,’ I genuinely wouldn’t have done it. We are sure that ‘Idol’ will continue successfully.
“Everyone seemed quite cool about it,” Cowell said.
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“Ellen [DeGeneres] sort of saw the funny side,” he said of the new, fourth “American Idol” judge. “She was kidding around with me, saying: ‘On my first day you decide to quit?’ She’s professional. I don’t think it was a total surprise.”
But after months of heated talks, Cowell, who refused to discuss how much Fox offered him to stay, says, “It’s a weight off my mind just to tell everybody.” A different TV source said it was for less than $100 million and Fox declined to comment.
Cowell admits he was frustrated with the “Idol” judging, saying: “On ‘X Factor,’ you get to mentor the artists, so you have more of a role. It’s frustrating sometimes when you sit there [as a judge] and you haven’t been able to change their songs, or how they perform, or what they wear.”
Asked who will join him on the “X Factor” panel, Cowell said, “It’s pointless hiring judges who don’t know anything about the music business. I’ll probably go and find someone who did what I did for a living. I was an A&R guy for 20 years. I thought Tommy Mottola would be a good choice. He was the guy who was the head of Sony — he guided Mariah — very flamboyant, knows what he’s talking about.”
As for Paula Abdul, he said, “I’ve been talking to Paula for a long time. It was always my intention in one way or another to carry on working with her.” And as for rumors he would bring British pop beauty Cheryl Cole to the panel, he said, “I think she would be great over here — Cheryl’s a star.” But, “The show’s got to be different from ‘Idol.’ There are some big changes planned.”