Why is Simon Cowell doing ‘America’s Got Talent’ this year?

By all accounts, there is no reason for Simon Cowell to still be in the business of making / judging on reality shows anymore. The man has made oodles of money in between “American Idol,” the creation of “The X Factor,” the “Got Talent” franchise, and everything he has done in music. Yet, he will be appearing this summer on “America’s Got Talent,” marking the first time in over two years that he has been on American TV.

So why in the world do it? This is something that Cowell himself commented on further in a cover story with Billboard, stating that he lives mostly for those few moments where you discover someone special on these shows:

“I must like to torture myself … Look, it’s not easy; I’m not going to lie to you. I get genuinely miserable. On Idol, especially the last few seasons, you’d finish the year and think, ‘I wasted nine months of my life.’ The worst are the in-betweens, where you’ve got to sit through someone singing John Legend or ‘At Last’ again. Then you get those moments where you find somebody incredible, and you don’t care that you had to torture yourself. The good times way outdo the bad times. And even the really bad times, like William Hung, made me laugh.”

We imagine that in the present climate, doing these shows has to be even more challenging creatively. The money is outstanding, but at the same time how many of these winners end up being even remotely relevant once you get past the show wrapping the finale? The answer is “not many.”

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