19 Entertainment Company

It's been a week of breakups for "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller. First, Simon Cowell announced he was leaving his job as judge on the hit Fox show. Now Fuller is parting ways with CKX Inc., which owns 19 Entertainment, producer of "American Idol" and Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance." Fuller's exit to start his own entertainment production company comes just days after CKX Chief Executive Robert F.X. Sillerman told The Times that he did not think Fuller's skills were suited to the executive suite.

It's been a week of breakups for "American Idol" creator Simon Fuller. First, Simon Cowell announced he was leaving his job as judge on the hit Fox show. Now Fuller is parting ways with CKX Inc., which owns 19 Entertainment, producer of "American Idol" and Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance." Fuller's exit to start his own entertainment production company comes just days after CKX Chief Executive Robert F.X. Sillerman told The Times that he did not think Fuller's skills were suited to the executive suite.

Shrieks of excitement interrupted the bustle in the offices of 19 Entertainment last week when the usually low-profile company won an apparently historic Hollywood trifecta -- the top-rated television show, the bestselling album and the chart-topping single, simultaneously. It's the kind of accomplishment that would elicit self-congratulatory news releases if it had been achieved by an industry giant such as Sony, Disney or AOL Time Warner. But that's not the style at 19 Entertainment.

Shrieks of excitement interrupted the bustle in the offices of 19 Entertainment last week when the usually low-profile company won an apparently historic Hollywood trifecta -- the top-rated television show, the bestselling album and the chart-topping single, simultaneously. It's the kind of accomplishment that would elicit self-congratulatory news releases if it had been achieved by an industry giant such as Sony, Disney or AOL Time Warner. But that's not the style at 19 Entertainment.

Now that Simon Cowell has decided this will be his last season as a judge on Fox's "American Idol," the next drama for the show's creator, Simon Fuller, may be in a boardroom. Fuller, chief executive of 19 Entertainment, which produces "American Idol" for Fox, is eyeballing the top job at 19 Entertainment's parent company, CKX Inc., according to people close to the situation. CKX, headed by Robert F.X. Sillerman, also has a majority stake in Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tenn.

The "American Idol" personality is largely id-driven: The pleasures the talent show offers are immediate, whether a singer soars or sinks. And the show around the show can yield even more merriment, as it spews out a ceaseless stream of news/gossip generated by the contestants' biographical details, the judges' antics, behind-the-scenes backstabbing that may or may not be fictional and, often least important, discussion of the results of the actual singing competition.