If streaming video hasn't killed the radio star by now, Simon Cowell says it probably never will.
The snarky judge from "America's Got Talent," has made a career out of pulling no punches on a slew of reality competition shows including "American Idol" and "The X Factor," but he believes even in a world dominated by YouTube stars and Twitterati, there's room for more TV programs aiming to discover the next big pop star.
Cowell believed that after Justin Bieber was discovered on YouTube in 2007, the video site would replace television shows like "Idol" as a wellspring for new talent.
"But that hasn't happened," Cowell told The Daily News, casually munching finger sandwiches and sipping afternoon tea in a sprawling suite at a swanky midtown Manhattan hotel.
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"I personally thought there would be far more breakout artists a year coming from YouTube after Justin (Bieber). Maybe about 20 a year when he came along. And actually that's not the case, so there's a huge argument to keep these kinds of shows going. I think there's still an appetite for these shows and I think they can last much longer than we initially thought."
Cowell leans back, delicately sipping a luke-warm cup of tea with milk an assistant had quietly slipped into his hands.
"America's Got Talent" finalist Grace Vanderwaal, 12, of Suffern, NY.
(NBC/Trae Patton/NBC)"In the beginning I thought the 'Idol' format really worked the best," Cowell says. "But when I saw 'The Voice' for the first time I felt sick — I must admit I thought 'this is a brilliant TV idea.' And those chairs looked incredible, it was as if they were sent down from another planet, Absolute respect to them."
Noting the passing of "American Idol," which ended in April after a 14-year run, he doubles down on the thought. "I still feel in my heart that there is room for another music show in this country — hand on my heart I do," he says adding that he's been working on something — but refusing to provide further details.
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For the moment, Cowell is focusing on "AGT," (Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 8 p.m. in NBC), where he has served as an executive producer since the show started and replaced Howard Stern as a judge this year, joining Heidi Klum, Mel B. and Howie Mandel.
"The judges thought I was coming in as the boss, but I was coming in like the new boy," he says. "So we both had these different impressions of each other. And what we quickly learned on the first day was that we all had very similar senses of humor. There was no hierarchy," Cowell says.
"We're all there as a team trying to spot the best talent we can find and not taking ourselves too seriously."
Simon Cowell
(NBC/Trae Patton/NBC)Whatever they're doing it's working.
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Attracting an average of 13.4 million viewers each week, "AGT" is enjoying its most watched season in five years, according to Nielsen numbers.
Going into its live performance shows last Tuesday — weeks before a winner is crowned — the program had already created a lineup of breakout stars, including 12-year-old Grace VanderWaal, from Suffern, NY.
A clip in which VanderWaal performed an original song and was instantly sent through to the finals by Mandel has been seen on Facebook more than 120 million times.
Another standout, a bizarre mime act going by the name Tape Face, has amassed more than 34 million views on YouTube.
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(America's Got Talent/Youtube)Cowell fell especially hard for Caly Bevier, a 16 year-old singer who fought stage 3 ovarian cancer. Her rendition of "Fight Song" has been seen more than 9 million times on YouTube.
"I still enjoy the fact that you can put a person — literally unknown on television — and five minutes later millions of people have seen them," Cowell says. "Now with the Internet, you can now be seen around the world within 24 hours and that's intoxicating and that's why I like the relationship been us, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube," he says.
"I love the fact that that is the secondary window now. There were a lot of people in the beginning who would tell me that 'if they use the clips online, nobody will watch the show.' I said, 'no, no I think it's the other way around. I think it spreads the word and draws people to watch the show.' Years ago people were telling me that TV was done and that everybody was going to watch my shows only on a computer. I kept saying 'no! No they're not! They still want the big screen. They just want to see what everybody else is saying at the same time.'"
In true Cowell fashion, he adds, "I was right, of course."
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