I just got into the dispute over this topic with someone else.

Im not talking about the look of all the shows but the Facts.

Some people seem to think that Simon Cowell was the brainchild behind Pop Idol , American Idol and X Factor.

However it is documented that the brainchild behind the Idol format was never Cowell , it is in fact Simon Fuller.

Cowell went away and dreamed up the X Factor and designed a supposedly new format. In 2005 Simon Fuller tried to take Cowell to court over the show similarities however in a settlement Cowell agreed to staying as a judge in AI while X Factor was lunched in the UK, Fuller was also given a stake in X Factor.

Cowell has no ownership whatsoever of the AI format but he does own rights to the X Factor format.

To date the outright ownership of X Factor belongs to Sony.

So that makes Simon Cowell the format owner and high end Exec but not outright owner correct?

Correct.

Glad someone agrees lol, had someone argue that Cowell still has some kind of rights over AI which i believe is not true. They also argued that pop idol and x factor were one of the same, although very similar they were in fact 2 different shows , one format owned by fuller and one by cowell lol

You are correct. They are wrong.

So Simon fuller actually owns the rights to America Idol and Cowell gets nothing from that show financially right?

Well he got his salary as judge and may have had producer status in the past. I haven't watched for many years but can't be sure. It's not his show though for certain.

Singing talent shows are more of a sub-genre of programming, that's why there are loads of different formats the world over.

Not anymore, no. He used to get his salary and he had a license to sign any American Idol finalist to Sony from 2002-2010. American Idol is owned by 19 Entertainment which Simon Fuller sold in March 2005 and is now owned by CORE Media Group. Simon Fuller continues to consult on the show but is no longer involved with 19.

The X Factor is owned by Simco Ltd, a wholly owned susbidiary of Syco Entertainment Ltd. Simon Cowell and Sony Music Entertainment UK are 50-50 partners in Syco Entertainment.

In both cases, Fremantle Media have one third interest in the shows. So Simco/19 each have 66% of their respective formats.

From 2005 to May 2010, 19 Entertainment had a 22% share in The X Factor. Those rights reverted to Syco when Simon Cowell left American Idol.

The official line is that Simon Fuller created the Pop Idol format and that Simon Cowell "assisted in the development" of the show. That's a wording that was agreed 24 hours before the final of Pop Idol 2001 amid a lot of backstage tension between the two Simon's. That tension eventually lead to The X Factor being born.

All singing talent shows - Idol, The Voice, The X Factor, Stars In Their Eyes, The Sing Off, Fame Academy, etc are essentially the same.

Pretty much, some subtle differences but largely the same show. Personally I feel like thats why the xfactor has looked so tired this year, this type of show has existed for 12 or 13 years. It's possibly time to give it a rest, they've exhausted the country looking for 'talent.'

Agree with this, in all honestly its no great surprise that x factor has not been a great success in the states, its got way to many similarities to AI and then you of course have the voice as well, i think there is only so much that anyone can take of all these similar shows.

Thanks for all the info, I just see so many people in the USA sites who seem to be under the impression that Simon owned AI outright and that he is still involved in some way with AI. I also see a lot of people thinking Simon Cowell has complete and utter control on everything to do with X Factor, I knew it was a partnership with sony and I would imagine its no different to any other business when there is to be drastic change then all the Exec's will have input and not just Cowell, he may have a good bit of say but I would think not ALL

I see a lot of the public screaming that Simon Cowell was mad to hire Britney but had read that the hire of Britney was not just up to Simon, basically the network did not think Paula abdul worked last year because she was typecast from AI. It was decided by show producers, network and Simon in regard to Britney being hired, which made sense to me as regardless of these people who put Simon on some pedastool of the X Factor world that it would not have been just his call to me make.

XF and Idol are quite different.... one is more of an earnest singing competition the other is an entertainment competition ... distinctly different but there are format similarities as one was born from the other...