Simon Cowell Scores a New Judging Gig

Simon Cowell is at it again. The TV personality has scored yet another judging gig, and this time, he’s taking a plane to Israel.

In December, Variety announced that the 61-year-old would be judging The X Factor Israel for the fourth season of the show, which has not aired since January 2018.

As the outlet highlighted, Cowell created the original version of The X Factor and judged for seven seasons before making his way to the U.S. to judge the American version of the show. These days, it’s produced in a whopping 56 territories, according to Variety.

The outlet quoted him as saying, “Over the years we have discovered incredible talents from around the world through the ‘X Factor’ format,” said Cowell. “I can barely wait to see what the Israelis have to offer.”

Reshet, the channel on which the show is broadcast, added, “Cowell is one of the biggest and most influential music figures in the world… and his participation as a judge in the Israeli format provides an opportunity for international exposure for Israeli singers.”

Deadline reported that the third season of the show would be hosted by supermodel Bar Rafaeli. To date, the series has welcomed an array of Israeli stars, like rapper Subliminal, pop star Irvi Lider, singer Shiri Maimon, and songwriter Moshe Peretz.

’50 States to Stardom’

That isn’t the only thing keeping Cowell busy these days.

The producer is also working alongside Brian Grazer and Ron Howard to create a new CBS musical competition series, 50 States to Stardom.

Deadline writes, “Blending music competition and documentary formats, 50 States To Stardom aims at discovering great emerging talent from every part of the country. Filmed in a TV studio and in the field, over the course of a season, the series will profile each state across the U.S. and its up-and-coming artists. Using immersive and cinematic styles, the series tell the backstories and reveal the stakes for featured contestants.”

In the past, Imagine TV has certainly utilized music in its scripted TV shows, like Empire, Wu-Tang: An American Saga, and Genius: Aretha. However, in the words of Deadline, this is the “biggest foray into reality TV” for Imagine TV.

Some Previous Auditions…

With any luck, Cowell’s experiences on his upcoming musical shows will find the success of his previous undertakings.

But, there are some acts he’ll probably want to stray away from. Over the course of his career, Cowell has witnessed some ridiculous things– in 2019, for example, he walked out of a stripping flute audition. In fact, he was so adamant that flautist Brandon Coprich not advance to the next round that he hit the buzzers for Gabrielle Union and Julianna Hough.

And during the most recent season of auditions, Cowell was nearly set on fire when The Passing Zone took to the stage.

The duo advanced to the semi-finals during season one of the competition and invited Simon up during their wild card performance on season 11. Thankfully, Simon was ok, but we’re sure it left a bad taste in his mouth.

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