Simon Cowell was so upset he virtually canceled new Netflix present

Netflix is betting massive on Simon Cowell, the person viewers liked to hate on “American Idol,” as he searches for the brand new One Route. But it surely all almost got here crashing down.

The music mogul, who helped make Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Hudson, Carrie Underwood large success tales, was filming “Simon Cowell: The Subsequent Act” (premiering Wednesday) when he discovered of Liam Payne’s surprising demise.

“I used to be in items, I’m not going to lie,” he advised me. A lot in order that he halted filming for just a few weeks and thought of strolling away from the challenge.

The brand new collection focuses on his efforts to mastermind the world’s subsequent massive boy band, as he did with One Route again in 2010 when he put collectively Payne — then simply 16 years outdated — with Harry Kinds, Niall Horan, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson for Britain’s model of “The X Issue.”

I’ve identified Cowell, 66, for greater than 20 years and, in all that point, I’ve by no means seen him cry. However he breaks down on digital camera after studying that Payne, 31, had fallen off a resort balcony in Buenos Aires after years of scuffling with habit and fame.

“I’d spoken to his dad and mom that morning after I heard the information and I used to be simply pondering, ‘God, I couldn’t address that. I genuinely couldn’t,’” Cowell tells me of the scene, filmed in October of 2024.

On the time, he had already auditioned 1,200 boys and was making ready to fly the ultimate 16 from England to the US for filming.

“I needed to decide as a result of I advised the boys that had been chosen they have been going to America,” he stated, “After which this occurred, and I’m like, ‘I’ve bought to get away for some time and actually take into consideration this.’”

In a approach, the previous simply felt too near his current.

“Then I met with them and I met with the dad and mom and we talked for just a few hours and I stated, ‘Look, give it some thought. After which in case you determine any of you don’t need to proceed, I fully perceive. And in case you do determine to return alongside we’re going to have a giant help group round you,’” Cowell recalled of the younger contestants. “They usually all determined they wished to have that likelihood.”

He admits he thought of his personal son, Eric, 11.

“You begin pondering, ‘What if Eric was a type of boys?’ Is it one thing that he ought to do?’ However when somebody makes up their thoughts that they need to go into leisure and so they’re proficient, you’ve bought to encourage them,” Cowell stated. “On the similar time, you’ve bought to take care of them.”

You additionally see on the present how Cowell’s longtime accomplice Lauren Silverman, 48 and the mom of Eric, will get emotional, telling him “I like you, I like you” as he flies off for some alone time on the SHA wellness clinic in Spain.

The clinic has grow to be a spot the place he recharges now and again, since a physician advised him just a few years in the past, “You could have the worst food plan I’ve ever seen.”

In addition to revamping his meals — he’s on a gradual food plan of “Fish, hen, greens, smoothies and corn flakes” — Cowell additionally has toxins faraway from his blood on the Spanish clinic.

“They take your blood plasma out, they filter it by a machine, after which it goes again into your physique three and a half hours later with all of the toxins taken out…” he defined. “I feel it’s made a distinction. I imply, it’s not what I might name a pleasing expertise.”

Again in 2013, it was a tabloid scandal when Lauren — then nonetheless married to New York real-estate developer Andrew Silverman — bought pregnant by Cowell. However the couple have had endurance. Though they’re not married but, regardless of having been engaged since 2021, we be taught on the present that she’s taken his surname timed to his sixty fifth birthday.

“That simply feels proper for me for now. Not for now, however I imply now, without end,” she says.

“There you go,” Cowell, who famously was disinclined to commit, laughs as we catch up. “It’s future. You by no means thought you’d see that!”

Nonetheless, the couple have some heated moments on the brand new collection.

In a single scene, viewers see Lauren berate Cowell when he gripes that he doesn’t need to go to the high-school commencement of Adam, her son from her earlier marriage.

“You’ve identified about this for f–king 5 years and now you’re making me really feel such as you don’t need to go,” she says, earlier than tearfully asking to have her microphone eliminated. “ what? Do no matter you need. That is my son’s commencement, it’s a giant deal and also you’re actually upsetting me as a result of I do all the pieces for you, and that’s actually impolite.”

Later, she admits, “If I’m upset about one thing, you’re gonna understand it.”

But it surely’s clear that Cowell liked having her on the present.

“She stated to me ‘do I’ve to be in it?” he advised me. “I stated, ‘Properly, take a look at the cameraman – you type of are already!’”

The present took two years to movie and, Cowell stated of Lauren: “I feel she is an absolute star in it. After I noticed the primary episode, I stated, ‘God, it’s like trying in a mirror.’ It’s so near how we’re. I imply, it’s, like, wacky. And we argue after which we’re advantageous once more.

“She made it rather more enjoyable for me to make as a result of she bought excited throughout the course of as nicely,” Cowell stated. “And Eric bought excited concerning the course of. So I’m pondering, oh, that is sensible. We’re all a part of it.”

Lauren additionally presents revealing perception into why Cowell is doing this 23 years after “American Idol” made him a family identify within the US.

“I feel Simon simply desires to show to himself and to the world that he’s nonetheless bought it,” she says on the present. “It makes him really feel good to know that he’s nonetheless related.”

Cowell stated he wished to make a present the place “we’re simply going to be trustworthy” and movie “when it goes incorrect — as a result of it can go incorrect.”

In addition to, he added, “I’m not an enormous fan of actuality reveals until there’s a type of goal.”

In some ways, Cowell set the template for actuality competitors reveals within the US — from “The Voice” to “The Masked Singer” to “Dancing With the Stars” to “Hell’s Kitchen” and his personal “America’s Obtained Expertise” — in addition to the position of the strict, sardonic choose.

However he doesn’t trouble with at this time’s reveals.

“No, by no means. I haven’t watched the dancing present. I haven’t watched ‘The Voice’” — regardless of One Route’s Niall Horan being a choose. “I’ve simply bought no genuinely no curiosity in any respect,” he stated. I’m if somebody good comes from them. In the event that they discovered somebody superb, then I’d take a look at who that particular person is. However that’s it.”

And, regardless of social media being seen as a approach for brand new expertise to get found, Cowell’s skeptical.

“I’ll let you know why. One thing like 400,000 songs a day are uploaded … out of these billions of songs uploaded a 12 months, what number of new artists are being found per 12 months?” he stated. “I feel the numbers are unbelievably low.

“So how do you get observed amongst all these individuals? I might say you’ve bought a greater shot approaching our reveals first after which doing no matter else you need to do.”

And, for himself, Cowell was trying to recapture the joy of beginning a brand-new band — and might’t look forward to the world to listen to the winners’ music.

“It’s been exhausting, worrying,” he stated, “however one of the crucial actually satisfying issues I’ve accomplished, I feel actually on TV.”