Simon Cowell is asking 'American Idol' to "show me the money" when his contract expires at the end of next season ... and the TV juggernaut just might do it.The Guardian is reporting that Cowell, who already makes $36 million a year for judging 'Idol,' might get a huge salary bump -- up to $144 mil. According to "a source close to [Simon] Fuller" (the show's creator), "[Cowell] has already been offered three to four times the $36 million he was paid for 'American Idol' in 2008 -- but then, he is the most important person on the show and the series makes $900 million a year and attracts audiences of 25 million."
TV critic Verne Gay thinks that figure is preposterous. "There is NO WAY Fox is going to pay him $144 M a year. Impossible," he wrote. "That would exceed the profit of the entire Fox network, in all probability, and wipe out whatever's left too."
To put the number in perspective, Oprah Winfrey reportedly earns $275 million a year, while Will Smith tops Hollywood's leading men with an annual salary of $80 million.
What do you think? Does Simon deserve such a huge pay raise?
Simon Cowell Photos
AMERICAN IDOL 8 Jacksonvile auditions: Judges Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul.
Fox
AMERICAN IDOL 8 Jacksonville Auditions: Judges Simon Cowell and Kara Dioguardi.
Fox
AMERICAN IDOL 8 Louisville Auditions: L-R: Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell judge the competition.
Fox
AMERICAN IDOL 8 Louisville Auditions: L-R: Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell judge the competition.
Fox
AMERICAN IDOL 8 Randy Jackson, Kara Dioguardi, Ryan Seacrest, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell. American Idol Returns with a two night, four-hour season premiere Tuesday, Jan. 13 and Wednesday, JAN. 14, 2009.
Fox Broadcasting
AMERICAN IDOL 8 Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell judge the competition on American Idol. premiering January 2009.
Fox Broadcasting
AMERICAN IDOL 8 Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell. Premiering January, 2009.
Fox Broadcasting
AMERICAN IDOL 8 Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi, Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Ryan Seacrest. Television's biggest event, returns for its eigth season in a special two-night, four-hour season premiere Tuesday, Jan. 13 (8:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) and Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2009.
Fox Broadcasting
Otildes Health Fund at the Kodak Theatre on November 10th where the Idol Gives Back telethon raised over $64 million last spring.
Fox Broadcasting
Simon Cowell leaves the X Factor Studio
Niki Nikolova/FilmMagic.com
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
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I believe this man is one of the rudiest men I know, and we are rewarding him by paying him this much and watching a show where he likes to mark a mustache on his fellow judges on national TV. Does he really deserve this?? Are we stupid or what...when the rest of the country is having trouble finding work? But if you watch the show you are helping ratings and his salary will keep going up. You know he is taking this money back to England, right!?!?!
I love Idol, and I love Simon......but HELL TO THE NO!!!! He should not get $144 million.
You know I could care less, the only time I see him is on a short trying to get people to watch, and he is a rude SOB. Anyway only retards watch that crap anyway, I wouldn't even waist my time.
Who cares how much Simon gets for Idol. This is his time in the son,and who know if anything like this phenonome will follow. During this time in history, there are lots of reasons not to feel good, but Idol lifts the spirits of many people and thats all good.
If I were Simon the first thing I would point out is your obvious lack of education. Your spelling is almost the as good as a 5th Grader. Plus no hard ass blunt Rnglish twit should make more than 2.50 an hour to act as blatanty ruthless as Simon Cowell. Thats just my opinion.
$144 Million when the economy is in such poor shape. I can't even afford my medications right now and I pay just the co-pay of 20%. $36 million is too much even. We can do without Simon! I watch the show for the music and not the judges.
So long as there are brainless idiots with no lives of their own to watch this stuff, they will keep churning it out of the toilet they scrape it from. This is why the average American IQ is 95.
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NO ONE deserves $144 million for doing ANYTHING, least of all Cowell,for doing nothing more than acting like a complete ass on television. I can act like a total creep, too, so why don't these blind idiot producers give ME the money? Because they're just as talentless as Cowell, that's why.