KING: Now you're into other things. I want to discuss some of them, the "American Inventor."
S. COWELL: Yes.
KING: Is it on yet?
S. COWELL: Yes, it went on last night.
KING: Oh, just last night.
S. COWELL: Yes, yes.
KING: What is it's concept?
S. COWELL: It's a very, very similar concept to Idol. You know it's again it's an American dream I suppose type of show, you know, where we're finding somebody and trying to make them very famous but this time we're doing it with inventors so it's a similar...
KING: Who come forward with their inventions?
S. COWELL: Yes, normal people who've come up with an invention once in their life. They go through a very similar process as we put the singers through on "American Idol" but this time they have to come in and pitch their invention. You know it's a very simple idea.
KING: Panel of how many?
S. COWELL: Panel of four. I had no idea how it was going to do. The critics absolutely loathed this show.
KING: Really?
S. COWELL: The majority absolutely, I mean I got a taste of my own medicine this time. "This is the worst show I've ever seen in my life. This is disgusting." And, it got nearly 20 million viewers last night, you know. It was the number one show on a Thursday night, so the audience seemed to like it.
KING: What was the criticism?
S. COWELL: It's cruel. It's degrading.
KING: You mean a lot of these people are kind of whacko?
S. COWELL: One or two. You know that's what turned up and we always do this on our shows, you know. If bad people turn up, we show the audience, you know, what we had to go through.
KING: Is your goal to come up with a superior invention that might someday be a successful product? S. COWELL: Yes, yes and I think we may have found one or two because all these people they're not professionals. They're just absolutely normal people maybe working in their sheds in their homes and they've come up with these -- with these good ideas, bad ideas. Some of them have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars even lost their homes. So, they came along to the show to pitch their ideas to us and last night was one of the audition shows.
KING: It's a great concept.
S. COWELL: It's a cool concept, yes.
KING: (INAUDIBLE) and who's the host?
S. COWELL: A guy called Matt. We got three -- three Americans on the judging panel, one Brit that I call Peter who came to me with the idea initially.
KING: You didn't want to be on it?
S. COWELL: I couldn't be on it because it's on ABC.
KING: Oh and you're committed to FOX.
S. COWELL: Yes, I'm exclusive to FOX but I would have judged this show in a heartbeat.
KING: Are you an industry now? I mean like are you into -- you've got this. You package "American Idol." You pretty much own "American Idol."
S. COWELL: Well, no I don't own the show. I own the records.
KING: OK, that's a pretty good deal.
S. COWELL: It's a good deal, yes.
KING: And they pay you.
S. COWELL: Yes, they pay me, yes.
KING: OK. What else are you doing?
S. COWELL: You know I make a lot of TV shows in the U.K. I have another talent show starting on NBC this summer called "America's Got Talent" but this time we've opened up. There are no rules to this competition. If you're a magician, a singer, a dancer, a comic, dog act, anyone, any age can enter the show and the winner gets a residency in Vegas and that goes on NBC this summer.
This struck me as funny. He makes it sound like his name is really Jim and he just likes Peter better.