Simon Cowell

Acun Medya taps int’l head from Simon Cowell banner

Acun Medya Global has hired Syco Entertainment’s head of international, George Levendis (pictured), as its chief operations officer. Levendis has been with Syco, the Simon Cowell joint venture with Sony, since January 2011. He oversaw all aspects of its international operations including the expansion of 50 versions of Got Talent and X Factor formats globally. […]

BBC to launch dance format with Simon Cowell’s Syco

The BBC has commissioned Simon Cowell’s (pictured) Syco Entertainment and FremantleMedia UK’s Thames to produce a new Saturday night dance talent show. The Greatest Dancer, an 8×60 entertainment series, will feature a host of talent from across the world of dance give the performances of their lives in the hopes to become the UK’s Greatest […]

TBI Factual: Year in Review

If scripted TV dominates the headlines at the moment, 2016 served up a few factual blockbusters. Genre-bending National Geographic series Mars married golden age scripted TV with documentary, Making a Murderer became watercooler (internet) TV and reinvigorated the true crime genre, and Leonardo DiCaprio brought some A-list movie star power to feature docs.   Planet […]

ITV, Syco plot Making a Murderer-style doc series

UK network ITV and reality show guru Simon Cowell are working on a Making a Murderer-style true crime series. The Investigator: A British Crime Story will feature the former police officer Mark Williams-Thomas, who unmasked Jimmy Saville as a paedophile in the ITV doc The Other Side of Jimmy Saville. Williams-Thomas will look into the […]

FremantleMedia, Sony plan pan-Asian Got Talent

FremantleMedia and Sony Pictures Television Networks have partnered to create a pan-Asian version of singing reality format Got Talent. Asia’s Got Talent will debut early next year on SPT Networks’ English-language entertainment channel AXN across 20 territories in the region. FremantleMedia has also secured deals with local free-to-air channels in Thailand, Indonesia and India to […]

X Factor UK preps US debut on AXS

Music cable channel AXS TV is taking The X Factor UK into the US for the first time. The channel has signed a deal with FremantleMedia International to broadcast the upcoming eleventh season of the show, which comes from Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment and FremantleMedia UK-owned Thames TV. The new season of the UK show […]

Simon Cowell named MIPCOM personality of the year

MIPCOM organisers Reed Midem have named Simon Cowell the personality of the year for this year’s market. Cowell’s Syco makes series including The X Factor and Got Talent. He will give an on-stage interview at MIPCOM on October 13, the first day of the market, before receiving the personality of the year award at a […]

Univision tunes up new Simon Cowell format

Singing format impresario Simon Cowell is launching his latest venture into the genre with Spanish-language US Hispanic channel Univision. La Banda is a boy band competition reality series that will launch on the high-rating network in 2015. It comes from Cowell’s Syco Entertainment and scour both the US and Latino markets to build a boy […]

FremantleMedia poaches Syco’s Hebden

FremantleMedia UK is replacing former interactive boss Peter Cassidy with Syco Entertainment executive producer, digital, Kat Hebden. The exec will become head of interactive for FremantleMedia UK Interactive. In the role, she’ll focus on building digital activities by developing production capabilities and growing FremantleMedia’s online channels portfolio. She’ll also work alongside the firm’s Digital & […]

US X Factor axed as Cowell returns to UK show

US broadcast network Fox has cancelled The X Factor after three seasons and the format’s creator and judge Simon Cowell is returning to the UK to shore up the original version of the talent show. Fox last week cited poor ratings for its version of the format as a key reason for its underperformance. The […]

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