Simon Cowell | Biography, TV Shows, & Facts

Simon Cowell was hired to work in the mail room at EMI Music Publishing and was later given the chance to discover performers to sing newly published songs. Eventually, BMG Records hired Cowell as an artist and repertoire consultant, and the success of the acts that he signed for BMG established him as an increasingly powerful influence in popular music.

Simon Cowell, in full Simon Phillip Cowell, (born October 7, 1959, Brighton, East Sussex, England), English entrepreneur, recording executive, and television producer and personality known for his pointed criticism of contestants on such shows as Pop Idol and its American spin-off, American Idol.

After leaving school at age 16, Cowell was hired to work in the mail room at EMI Music Publishing and was eventually given the chance, in 1979, to discover performers to sing newly published songs. In 1985 he and a partner formed Fanfare Records, which enjoyed some success before folding in 1989. Later that year BMG Records hired Cowell as an artist and repertoire consultant. The success of the acts that he signed for BMG established him as an increasingly powerful influence in popular music.

Britannica Quiz

Pop Culture: Fact or Fiction?

Where did Legos originate? Was Marilyn Monroe married to a writer? And how much do you really know about the Muppets? Test your pop culture pizzazz with this fact or fiction quiz.

Having witnessed the popularity of the British television series Popstars (2000), a reality show built around competing musical acts, Cowell and British music and television producer Simon Fuller developed the show’s format a step farther by allowing viewers to choose the winners in the final rounds of a new show, Pop Idol (2001–03). The Fox Broadcasting Company imported the show, along with Cowell as judge, to the United States, where it premiered in 2002 as American Idol. An immediate hit, it became the highest-rated American television show. Its popularity was partly due to Cowell’s acerbic put-downs of contestants and, on occasion, of his fellow judges.

In 2004 The X Factor, a talent competition cojudged by Cowell and coproduced by his company, Syco Productions, began airing on British TV. Two years later it won the award for best entertainment program from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Also in 2006 he became executive producer of three new American shows—American Inventor (2006–08), a competition that promised a million-dollar manufacturing contract for the winner; America’s Got Talent (2006– ), a show open to all types of entertainers on which he served as a judge from 2016; and Celebrity Duets (2006), a short-run singing competition between pairings of professional singers and celebrities. Cowell also sold the format of Duets to Great Britain’s ITV. In 2007 he was executive producer of Grease Is the Word, a reality show to find the next stars for the British revival of the musical Grease. That year he also inaugurated Britain’s Got Talent, on which he served as a judge. In May 2010 Cowell left American Idol in order to work on a U.S. version of The X Factor (2011–13). Following the cancellation of that show, he returned to hosting the British version, which ended in 2018. He later created The Greatest Dancer (2019–20) for the BBC.

His autobiography, I Don’t Mean to Be Rude, but…, was published in 2003.