Netflix is betting big on Simon Cowell, the man viewers loved to hate on “American Idol,” as he searches for the new One Direction. But it all nearly came crashing down.
The music mogul, who helped make Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood massive success stories, was filming “Simon Cowell: The Next Act” (premiering Wednesday) when he learned of Liam Payne’s shocking death.
“I was in pieces, I’m not going to lie,” he told me. So much so that he halted filming for a few weeks and considered walking away from the project.
The new series focuses on his efforts to mastermind the world’s next big boy band, as he did with One Direction back in 2010 when he put together Payne — then just 16 years old — with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson for Britain’s version of “The X Factor.”
I’ve known Cowell, 66, for more than 20 years and, in all that time, I’ve never seen him cry. But he breaks down on camera after learning that Payne, 31, had fallen off a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires after years of struggling with addiction and fame.
“I’d spoken to his parents that morning when I heard the news and I was just thinking, ‘God, I couldn’t cope with that. I genuinely couldn’t,’” Cowell tells me of the scene, filmed in October of 2024.
At the time, he had already auditioned 1,200 boys and was preparing to fly the final 16 from England to the US for filming.
“I had to make a decision because I told the boys that had been selected they were going to America,” he said, “And then this happened, and I’m like, ‘I’ve got to get away for a while and really think about this.’”
In a way, the past just felt too close to his present.
“Then I met with them and I met with the parents and we talked for a few hours and I said, ‘Look, think about it. And then if you decide any of you don’t want to continue, I completely understand. And if you do decide to come along we are going to have a big support team around you,’” Cowell recalled of the young contestants. “And they all decided they wanted to have that chance.”
He admits he thought about his own son, Eric, 11.
“You start thinking, ‘What if Eric was one of those boys?’ Is it something that he should do?’ But when someone makes up their mind that they want to go into entertainment and they’re talented, you’ve got to encourage them,” Cowell said. “At the same time, you’ve got to look after them.”
You also see on the show how Cowell’s longtime partner Lauren Silverman, 48 and the mother of Eric, gets emotional, telling him “I love you, I love you” as he flies off for some alone time at the SHA wellness clinic in Spain.
The clinic has become a place where he recharges every so often, since a doctor told him a few years ago, “You have the worst diet I’ve ever seen.”
Besides revamping his meals — he’s on a steady diet of “Fish, chicken, vegetables, smoothies and corn flakes” — Cowell also has toxins removed from his blood at the Spanish clinic.
“They take your blood plasma out, they filter it through a machine, and then it goes back into your body three and a half hours later with all the toxins taken out…” he explained. “I think it’s made a difference. I mean, it’s not what I would call a pleasant experience.”
Back in 2013, it was a tabloid scandal when Lauren — then still married to New York real-estate developer Andrew Silverman — got pregnant by Cowell. But the couple have had staying power. Although they’re not married yet, despite having been engaged since 2021, we learn on the show that she’s taken his surname timed to his 65th birthday.
“That just feels right for me for now. Not for now, but I mean now, forever,” she says.
“There you go,” Cowell, who famously was disinclined to commit, laughs as we catch up. “It’s destiny. You never thought you would see that!”
Still, the couple have some heated moments on the new series.
In one scene, viewers see Lauren berate Cowell when he gripes that he doesn’t want to go to the high-school graduation of Adam, her son from her previous marriage.
“You’ve known about this for f–king five years and now you’re making me feel like you don’t want to go,” she says, before tearfully asking to have her microphone removed. “You know what? Do whatever you want. This is my son’s graduation, it’s a big deal and you’re really upsetting me because I do everything for you, and that is really rude.”
Later, she admits, “If I’m upset about something, you’re gonna know it.”
But it’s clear that Cowell loved having her on the show.
“She said to me ‘do I have to be in it?” he told me. “I said, ‘Well, look at the cameraman – you kind of are already!’”
The show took two years to film and, Cowell said of Lauren: “I think she is an absolute star in it. When I saw the first episode, I said, ‘God, it’s like looking in a mirror.’ It’s so close to how we are. I mean, it’s, like, wacky. And we argue and then we’re fine again.
“She made it much more fun for me to make because she got excited during the process as well,” Cowell said. “And Eric got excited about the process. So I’m thinking, oh, this is brilliant. We’re all part of it.”
Lauren also offers revealing insight into why Cowell is doing this 23 years after “American Idol” made him a household name in the US.
“I think Simon just wants to prove to himself and to the world that he’s still got it,” she says on the show. “It makes him feel good to know that he’s still relevant.”
Cowell said he wanted to make a show where “we’re just going to be honest” and film “when it goes wrong — because it will go wrong.”
Besides, he added, “I’m not a massive fan of reality shows unless there’s a kind of purpose.”
In many ways, Cowell set the template for reality competition shows in the US — from “The Voice” to “The Masked Singer” to “Dancing With the Stars” to “Hell’s Kitchen” and his own “America’s Got Talent” — as well as the role of the stern, sardonic judge.
But he doesn’t bother with today’s shows.
“No, never. I haven’t watched the dancing show. I haven’t watched ‘The Voice’” — despite One Direction’s Niall Horan being a judge. “I’ve just got no genuinely no interest whatsoever,” he said. I’m interested if someone good comes from them. If they found someone amazing, then I might look at who that person is. But that’s it.”
And, despite social media being seen as a way for new talent to get discovered, Cowell’s skeptical.
“I’ll tell you why. Something like 400,000 songs a day are uploaded … out of those billions of songs uploaded a year, how many new artists are being discovered per year?” he said. “I think the numbers are unbelievably low.
“So how do you get noticed amongst all those people? I would say you’ve got a better shot coming on our shows first and then doing whatever else you want to do.”
And, for himself, Cowell was looking to recapture the excitement of starting a brand-new band — and can’t wait for the world to hear the winners’ music.
“It’s been exhausting, stressful,” he said, “but one of the most honestly satisfying things I’ve done, I think certainly on TV.”
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