Simon Cowell always wanted to rule the Earth – now he has set his sights on space as well.
The TV mogul is returning to British screens after a year in exile and he’s come up with an out-of-this-world stunt to announce his comeback.
In a telly first, Simon has declared he intends to blast this year’s Britain’s Got Talent winner into orbit.
He has teamed up with show’s new sponsor, Virgin’s Richard Branson, to offer the prize of a flight in Virgin Galactic’s 2,500mph spaceship.
Branson’s rocket for space tourists could be ready for lift off as soon as next year, taking passengers on a weightless trip above the atmosphere.
Yesterday, just a few hours after jetting back to the UK following his New Year break in Barbados, Simon said: “We are trying to work out a way so that the winner of the show gets to go up in the spacecraft and will be the first person to perform in space.
"I am being serious, I swear to God. You could be the first singer or dog act, whatever, performing in space.”
Simon, 52, even pledged to join them. “I would go on the spaceship myself. I love the idea that, if they are up for it, they have the option of performing in front of the whole planet in space. It can’t be compulsory, but it will happen.”
He is trying to revitalise BGT after a lacklustre 2011 series and the cash prize will also more than treble to £350,000 – most of it from his own pocket.
Glossing over the problems of gravity and oxygen in space, he added: “It’s tens of millions of pounds but Richard is up for doing it. Don’t worry about the details, we’ll make it happen.”
And he laughed: “If it’s a juggler that wins, then we’ll need to make heavier balls. If it had been a few years ago, Susan Boyle could have been singing Unchained Melody in front of the whole planet. Amazing. What does the winner of The Voice get?”
Ah yes, The Voice, the forthcoming new BBC singing contest that has its sights set firmly on Simon’s X Factor in the Saturday night ratings battle. His annoyance, he reveals, is the reason he poached Strictly Come Dancing’s Alesha Dixon for the BGT judging panel.
He says he likes Alesha but the decision was 70/30 based on his desire to get one over on the BBC.
“I like her a lot,” he insists. “When I was in America I’d read about all the ratings battles going on over here and I did think Strictly were getting a bit smug.
"I’d see Bruno Tonioli in LA looking smug and I was thinking, ‘You’re not going to be smiling quite so much next year if this comes off’.”
He approached Alesha BEFORE the Strictly final last month. He explained: “I’d approached her originally to do X Factor but she’s ended up on Got Talent. I just wanted her for one of our shows. I thought she looked brilliant.
“She’s got energy, she gets it, and she wanted to do something different, not just for the money. She’s an ambitious girl and I wanted to work with her.
“With us and the BBC, I laugh about it, but there is unbelievable rivalry now. They want to be number one, I want to be number one. We do what it takes.
"It’s a game, all meant to be in good spirit, and it’s not supposed to be dirty tricks. We all begrudgingly shake hands when we see each other – but you don’t do anything for second place.”
Simon reckons the BBC threw down the gauntlet by spending £30million on X Factor rival The Voice, which airs in the spring at the same time as Britain’s Got Talent.
“They’ve done this to have a pop at the X Factor and to have a go at the BGT ratings. They will definitely go head to head with us. But I’ve got Alesha now.”
His relationships with women have been patchy (ask poor Kelly Brook, who lasted just a few days on BGT).
Having spent the last few weeks sunning himself on a yacht in Barbados, surrounded by a bevy of beauties, Simon shifts uncomfortably when quizzed on his fiancee Mezghan Hussainy. Not only did she not join him for his sunshine break, she hasn’t been seen with him for months.
Refusing to confirm speculation they have split, he said: “Everything is fine. We speak on the phone all the time, I talked to her yesterday.”
But asked about his new holiday friends, who included diamond heiress Zeta Graff, he insisted: “None of them are my girlfriends. They are just friends, 100%.” So does that means we’ll be hearing wedding bells soon then? “Er, I didn’t say that,” he answers.
His decision to return to Britain’s Got Talent came after realising that last year had been a bit of an annus horribilis.
He explained: “We all got a big smug last year, I certainly got a bit too cocky, a bit arrogant. I ended 2010 on a real high, it was the Matt Cardle year, my favourite year and the figures were huge.
"We went into 2011 thinking ‘it’s all going to be easy’ and of course it wasn’t. From BGT, to Red or Black, to me making these massive predictions about America.
"I had a massive wake up call. You think you are great, you get a bit of smack, then you go, ‘Fine, don’t be too cocky’. When I was talking about the numbers X Factor US was going to do, I thought, ‘Christ, why did I say that?’
"But I am naturally enthusiastic and you do say things and you kind of regret doing it, but you have got to have that confidence. I feel something in the air this year which I didn’t a year ago.
"There was a lot of fear, a lot of negativity in the air in Britain full stop. I genuinely thought they’d be glad to see the back of me for 12 months. I didn’t think it did me any harm staying away for a while. I do feel this year there is a lot more confidence.
"That might be because of the Olympics and the Diamond Jubilee.”
Simon was unimpressed with the efforts of last year’s judges, who included David Hasselhoff and Michael McIntyre with returning regular Amanda Holden.
He said: “I don’t think the judges did a good enough job, to be honest. There are always stars waiting to be discovered. Sometimes they need to be pointed in the right direction and I don’t think that happened enough last year.”
For the next series David Walliams has agreed to join the panel. Simon grinned: “He’s weird and he makes me laugh without trying to be funny.”
He also insists Red or Black will be back – but with more checks on contestants to avoid last year’s debacle when the winner turned out to be a woman-beater.
And there will be changes for X Factor too, though he hasn’t decided who out of judges Gary Barlow, Louis Walsh, Tulisa and Kelly Rowland will stay or go. He teased: “Anything could happen.”
