Fox pledges American Idol to survive without Simon Cowell

[HMG] – Despite rumors of impending departure by Simon Cowell from American Idol, it’s now been confirmed that Fox will insist that the show must go on.

The contract between Fox and the show’s producers,19 Entertainment and Fremantle Media is valid until the end of 2011. But the network is ready to order another three seasons of Idol – whether or not Simon’s on-board.

Idol is Fox’s biggest cash-cow to date, but if the self-serving threats about Simon’s departure at the end of next season come to pass, it could not only cause a sharp drop in viewers but also be a threat to Idol’s dominance in the ratings when Cowell brings his UK talent show, ‘X-Factor’ to American screens.

The next step in this juvenile game of threats and self-serving rumor is for Simon to sign a deal with Sony [who own the  'X-Factor' franchise,] then he can make a deal with Fox to bring the show to the States. But the Hollywood Reporter is saying the network would prefer to buy X-Factor as part of an agreement which sees Cowell staying with Idol for at least one more year.

Simon, however, is not keen on this plan. By quitting ‘Idol’ he’d make his involvement with X-Factor a much bigger deal [and thus get more money.] But the deal with Sony could push the debut of the new show – currently planned for the fall of next year – to mid-2011 instead…So Simon could do one more year. And you can bet he knows that.

Last week on his podcast, Simon’s brother, Tony, helped Simon further this thinly-veiled blackmail of Fox by reporting that Simon and his business partner, Philip Green have one concept for “X-Factor” that involves producing it as a live Las Vegas event, then streaming that live on the internet as a ‘Pay-per-View’ show.

And if you believed he was serious, you’d be as dumb as he looks.

Discussions with Fox are currently in play. We’ll let you know how it goes…