Simon Cowell, The $144,000,000 Dollar Man?

So, how much is Simon worth to Fox and the Idol producers? Purportedly (or reportedly, I should say, NY Daily News) the low nine figures:

"American Idol's" blunt Brit may make up to $144 million to slap down contestants next season, according to the UK's Guardian.

The paper reports on its Web site that talent judge Simon Cowell earned $36 million last season, and a source close to "Idol" creater Simon Fuller says he has been offered three to four times as much.

(Looked for the Guardian piece, couldn't find it. If you can, please send me a link.)

Is he worth it? Would you not watch Idol without him? And, if he wasn't on Idol, don't you think he would run out and find a network partner to put together his own version?

I certainly do. It's basically what happened in the UK, isn't it? While Pop Idol (the UK AI) met its death, Cowell turned around and plowed forward with a couple of talent contests, I believe, with Britian's Got Talent being the one that stuck.

So, if I were Fox, and especially given Simon's relationship with NBC, where he produces but does not appear on camera in America's Got Talent, I would consider opening the vault.

Lane Brown commenting at NY Magazine:

We would point out that this is an insane sum of money that tops the amounts raised for Africa by either 2007's or 2008's Idol Gives Back telethons, but we're already sick of the clown judges on So You Think You Can Dance and America's Got Talent and since AI pulls down $900 million a year anyway, $140 million seems like a perfectly reasonable price for Simon. Also, paying out that much might make it difficult to employ four judges next season, and we'd totally approve of one losing her job.

Yeah, just give Simon the money Fox has been paying Kara and be off with her, okay? Then everybody's happy.