American Idol judge Simon Cowell is reportedly leaving the show. His brother released a podcast with the information. Then the podcast was pulled, without explanation.
Sources say Simon Cowell is moving on to meaner pastures – pulling up stakes he set with talent show American Idol in 2002 and heading to Las Vegas.
British tabloid The Sun says he’ll leave Idol and bring British talent show The X Factor to Vegas as part of a pay-per-view venture set for 2011. The story quotes brother Tony Cowell, who hosts a podcast and used it for his announcement on December 22.
“A press statement is being prepared which will confirm what everybody expected: Simon will leave Idol at the end of 2010,” Tony Cowell said.
A caveat to the new news is that the podcast was removed later that day – and that both Simon Cowell’s publicist and representatives of Idol‘s Fox offices in Los Angeles declined comment about the departure. So Simon Cowell’s exit is not confirmed in concrete. However, co-host Paula Abdul has already jumped ship. She left earlier in 2009 and is set to be replaced by Ellen DeGeneres during the show’s next season, which may be Cowell’s last.
Cowell, now 50, has had a lengthy run with American Idol. And he’s long been lambasted for criticizing not only how show contestants sing, but how they look.
Singer Katrina Lee was one of his more famous victims – undergoing plastic surgery after hearing Cowell say in 2004 he’d love to put her talent in someone else’s body. Lee said his comments nearly “wrecked” her life; she sought several cosmetic repairs to give Cowell a different view. This finally happened earlier in 2009, when she advanced through Idol auditions and got an apology from the judge himself.
Cowell himself denies undergoing any invasive plastic surgery but admits to using Botox.
According to MakeMeHeal.com, Simon has said that plastic surgery is recommended in many cases: “I’d make it compulsory for every woman over 40.”
Simon Cowell may soon leave the show America knows him for most. And when he does, he’ll leave a trail of dejected — and sometimes surgically enhanced — singers in his wake.
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