The first talent auditions for the ninth season of the Fox juggernaut "American Idol" are still two weeks away, but there is already a beauty contest going on behind the scenes.
Negotiations on a new contract for Simon Cowell, the show's linchpin, chief prosecutor and animating force, are progressing quickly and could be concluded as early as this week. Cowell, who currently makes about $36 million annually and still has another year on his pact, is looking at a new multiyear deal that would boost his pay to the $45-million range, people close to the talks said.
Cowell's push for more money comes on the heels of host Ryan Seacrest's new contract, which pays him $30 million over three years to host plus $15 million for merchandising rights to his image. Co-judge and pop diva Paula Abdul is also seeking a hefty increase in pay, although it's unclear whether she will be able to wrangle the kind of raises won by her colleagues.
Costly renewal contracts are not uncommon for the stars of hit sitcoms and dramas, where the fate of a series often rests with an actor or actress who has legions of fans that would abandon the show if their idol did not return. But the high-stakes poker game over pay currently underway with the judges of "American Idol," a talent show that has soared to popularity in the reality TV boom, points up the paucity of giant hits in an era when few network series attract broad swaths of the viewing public.
"There are fewer and fewer of these shows," said Brent Poer, senior vice president at MediaVest USA, which buys TV commercial time for clients such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co. " 'American Idol' is one of the last bastions of appointment viewing. For advertisers, it shows there is still a show that can generate water cooler talk."
Such singular status makes "American Idol" a cash cow for Fox, which airs it twice each week and uses the outsize viewership to promote the network's other shows, turning it into an audience-generating machine.
Although ratings and advertising revenue for "American Idol" have declined in recent years, it is still the most-watched show on television and commands the second-highest rates from advertisers. (The Super Bowl is No. 1.) In the most recent season, the program averaged 26.6 million viewers per episode, and advertisers shelled out more than $700,000 for a 30-second commercial, TNS Media Intelligence said. Overall, "American Idol" took in almost $850 million in advertising revenue last season, more than any other television show, despite the weak economy.
