January 9, 2006
HecklerSpray
Whatever you may think about Simon Cowell, the man sure knows how to sell TV shows. Pop Idol, American Idol, X Factor - all normal talent shows in sparkly suits - have all been giant successes.
So when Simon Cowell dreams up a new TV show, people sit up and listen. Even if the show is as toe-curlingly awful-sounding as Duets - Simon's new idea: a kind of pro-celebrity wailing competition - networks like ITV in the UK and Fox in America fall over themselves to throw money at him.
Simon Cowell (Books) has got a lot of mileage out of being rude to bad singers. Pop Idol - the first series at least, not the one where the fat lass won - was a huge success, American Idol is regularly the most-watched show in the country and X Factor is currently responsible for Shayne Ward, the boy who has been number one for the last three weeks with That's My Goal.
Simon's new idea - apart from Ethiopian Idol - is Duets, a format which ruthlessly steals from just about every single reality television show around. Duets is a song-based talent show - like American Idol or X Factor. But the twist is that famous non-musical celebrities have to convince a panel of judges of their worth - like Celebrity Fame Academy. And by teaming the bad-voiced celebrities with professional singers, Duets also gets to be a bit like Strictly Come Dancing (or Dancing With The Stars).
We think Simon Cowell could have tried to go the whole hog by getting the celebrities to live in a house together on a desert island together, but that's beside the point. Anyway, as well as selling the format to ITV over here, Cowell has also sold Duets to Fox in America. But Simon won't be around to be nasty about the singing on the TV - he's just going to be executive producing Duets, not acting as judge.
And why would Simon Cowell want to judge Duets? He's far too busy stuffing fistfuls of money into his underwear and laughing developing other new TV formats - shows like an 'idiots only' Gong Show type affair for Britain and the ludicrous American Inventor series for the US.
