Simon Cowell tells Oprah he was kicked out of a US TV network once

LONDON - TV producer/entrepreneur Simon Cowell has revealed that he was once thrown out of a meeting with US television executives after pitching the format for ‘Pop Idol’- his first reality series.

After the show - a forerunner to ‘X Factor’-became an overnight hit when it aired on ITV in 2001, Cowell and his then-business partners Simon Fuller and Simon Jones flew to Los Angeles to sell the format.

However, the 51-year-old mogul confessed that he left the US with “my tail between my legs” when one senior executive from an unnamed network kicked them out after their presentation.

“It was so bad that a minute into the pitch the guy said, ‘No’,” the Daily Mail quoted him as telling Oprah Winfrey on her Master Class show.

“To wind him up, I said, “So, it sounds like you’re interested?” He said ‘Get out’ and we were thrown out of the network,” Cowell revealed.

Adding to the humiliation was that the group hadn’t booked a car to pick them up, so they were left red-faced sitting on the steps outside the building.

“I turned to the other Simons and said, ‘The good news is, it will never get worse than this,’” he said.

Cowell, who became an international star when the Fox network bought ‘Pop Idol’ and turned it into ‘American Idol’, used the interview to fuel speculation that he will quit the British X Factor to focus on the US show.

But it seems Cowell has now had a change of heart.

“I asked a successful guy, “What’s the best advice you can give me?” He said, “Simon, know when to leave the fair,” he said.

“I think that’s good advice - one year, I actually found myself thinking, “I’ve run out of insults, I don’t know how I’m going to tell people they suck.

“Something inside you says, ‘You know what, it’s time to go.

“I’ve enjoyed myself, I mean it’s not the most difficult job in the world, is it?” he added. (ANI)