Simon Cowell says he's envious of 'Dancing with the Stars' success
By Christopher Rocchio, 06/05/2007
Lots of words have been used to describe Simon Cowell. But since the American Idol judge is raking in dough as a music and television producer of artists and shows located all around the world, jealous probably wouldn't be one of them. That is apparently until now.
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"When I watch Dancing with the Stars in America it makes me sick with envy because I didn't think of the idea myself," Cowell told the U.K.'s Digital Spy website on Tuesday.
"If someone I know is doing better than me I get incredibly miserable," Cowell continued. "A lot of my friends are extremely wealthy, but I'm not envious of their money, however, I'm never pleased if they have a hit show. I don't go to bed thinking, 'I'm really happy their show is doing so well.' It annoys me that it wasn't my idea."
However The Bachelor: Officer and a Gentleman's After the Final Rose special served as a lead-in for Dancing with the Stars 4 finale on that Tuesday night, and ABC was actually able to outdraw Fox and finish first among average viewers during the final Tuesday night of the May sweeps ratings period. Although Fox's Tuesday night broadcast of Idol'sfinal sixth-season performance episode performed well in the 8PM ET/PT hour, On the Lot's debut didn't do anywhere near as well in the 9PM ET/PT time period, resulting in the two shows combining for a full-night average of 16.8 million total viewers.
Fox's 16.8 million total viewers average fell well short of the 18 million total viewers that ABC's After the Final Rose special and Dancing with the Stars finale averaged on the night -- allowing ABC to become the first network ever to average more viewers than Fox during a Tuesday night Idol broadcast since the megahit show first became part of Fox's regular season schedule in 2003.
Although he's green with envy over Dancing with the Stars's fourth-season ratings success, Cowell knows enough about the entertainment industry to know he could be feeling something a lot worse than some jealousy.
"That's how it should be - when you lose your competitive edge, you're over," he told Digital Spy.