Do we like Simon Cowell?
Our score: 6 out of 10. No harmful campaigning turned up, and he gives to charity, but his harsh treatment of contestants and a pending negligence claim leave the nice side unsettled.
Cowell started in the EMI mailroom, got the job through his father, and worked his way up to scouting acts. He launched Fanfare Records, which closed after four years, then consulted for BMG. The big break was creating Pop Idol in 2001, which became American Idol, then The X Factor and the Got Talent shows.
His Syco label then signed One Direction, Little Mix, Leona Lewis, Westlife and Susan Boyle. That's the empire: he found a formula for turning strangers into stars, and the cruel one-liners were part of the product.
On the harm check, nothing turned up where Cowell campaigned against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants, vaccines or the climate, and no pattern of harmful company showed up. The one stain is from 2006. PinkNews reported he told a male Idol contestant to shave his beard and wear a dress, and GLAAD raised concerns with Fox. The report carried no comment from him and no apology.
The nice test is murkier. In the New York Times in late 2025, he said he'd probably gone too far with contestants. He added “I'm not proud of it, let's put it that way” and finished with “I'm sorry.” He also blamed long audition days and editing that used him in a bad mood.
The apology doesn't close the file. Katie Waissel, who finished seventh on the 2010 X Factor, told the Sunday Times she was pursuing a negligence claim against Syco, alleging a breach of duty of care. She called the live-show contract “manipulation and coercion at its finest.” The January 2023 report carried no response from Syco or Cowell and no ruling, and I couldn't find the outcome.
The recent bit is in the same vein. In May 2026 he said the panel's reaction to Susan Boyle was “a bit of a wakeup call”, and that “We are awful. All of us.” He said they apologised to her, and that he told her he'd sign her after she lost the final. It reads as a man looking back on his own cruelty, which is more than most do.