American Idol owner tries to end deals with Simon Fuller

In the latest saga affecting American Idol, its rights holder Core Media Group is trying to push British-born entrepreneur Simon Fuller – who came up with the Idol concept in 2001 while vacationing in his summer home in the south of France – out of the picture.

If it is successful, Fuller will lose his 10% profit share from Idol (which ended this year after 15 seasons but expected to return in the future) as well as So You Think You Can Dance, which Core Media also has the US rights to.

Core Media went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this year, with debts of nearly US$400 million built up over two years. Part of this was caused by the fact that American Idol (after a strong start, with 45 million tuning into its first grand finale) stopped being as profitable.

The other part of this was due to the multi-million-dollar payment (estimated to be $10 million) that Fuller demanded earlier this year.

In 2010, when Fuller left Core Media subsidiary 19 Entertainment, it was decided that he would serve as an executive producer and consultant in return for huge payments. Now Fuller is laying fraud charges, and pushing for an investigation into the company’s assets.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Fuller’s legal filing also raises the prospect of future claims “for actual and constructive fraudulent transfers, equitable subordination and disallowance, unjust enrichment, breach of fiduciary duty and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty.”

After filing Chapter 11, Core’s ownership was taken over by its two key lenders, Crestview Partners and Tennenbaum Capital.

Core, which has reached a settlement with its unsecured creditors over repaying the $400 million debt, has responded that Fuller’s “represents a blatant attempt to harass the Debtors at a crucial stage in these proceedings for the benefit of a single creditor who was obviously unhappy with the Committee’s conclusions,” according to its lawyers

In a further step, it is seeking an order under bankruptcy code to authorize the rejection of its agreements with Fuller. It says that these contracts have “become more burdensome then beneficial”, that his services are no longer needed, and that “The Debtors’ relationship with Mr. Fuller has similarly deteriorated.”

The motion is to be taken up at a bankruptcy court hearing on August 23.

In April this year when American Idol ended, Fuller was asked about the show’s economic impact. He responded: “I quite often think about that. It’s something that hasn’t been recognised as much as it should have been. Whether that’s all the people employed, the hotels that have been booked, the hundreds of thousands of concert tickets sold, all that music that’s been sold, all the merchandise, all those people that are fuelling other shows, Broadway and the movies that our stars have been in. The advertisers that have bought into the show. We had that wonderful close relationship with iTunes for many years. The impact of Idol and its value is billions and billions.”

Fuller has a personal fortune worth about $608 million. He masterminded the careers of the Spice Girls as well as that of S-Club, who sold 10 million CDs and whose TV series was sold to 110 countries. In addition to getting a commission from the Pop Idol format, he also struck a deal where he’d get 20% of earnings from all Pop Idol winners.

Today Fuller runs a fashion business with Victoria and David Beckham, is involved in a number of sports clubs (he and David bought the Miami soccer franchise), is building a sports stadium, working on a non-music show for the BBC, building a digital show around Elvis Presley (he owns the King’s digital rights) and is creating a virtual pop star expected to create millions of dollars from merchandise and other initiatives.

The Fuller affair is just one of the dramas surrounding American Idol. Recently judge Mariah Carey called her experience “abusive”, relating to the fake “feud” with Nicki Minaj during the 2015 season, and her inability to get along with co-judge Jennifer Lopez. Carey called the show fake and boring, and that the judges were under pressure to acclaim even lukewarm performances.