For those in the entertainment industry, dealing with fans has got to be one of the strangest parts of the job. We’ve heard about women following Kelly Clarkson into the bathroom and people quotingThe Office wrong to Rainn Wilson, and I’d imagine there are some overall pretty strange requests that get made. To prove that, again, Simon Cowell said there’s one thing he’s commonly asked to do, but the prize has to go to the couple who asked him to critique their sex life.
Simon Cowell Reveals A Common Fan Request
Simon Cowell came up in the music business as a record producer, but let’s be real — we all know him for judging competition shows. In fact, he’ll be behind the Golden Buzzer again when America’s Got Talent Season 20 hits the 2025 TV schedule later this month.
Before AGT, though, he was notorious for being mean to American Idol’s early-season contestants, and that’s undoubtedly the inspiration behind one common request. Cowell opened up about this too on the How to Fail with Elizabeth Day podcast, saying:
People used to ask me to be rude to them. I mean literally, they would come up and say — particularly in America — ‘Will you be rude to me?’ And I’m like, ‘No!’
The talent scout describes himself as shy, and anyone who’s watched him shed a tear on America’s Got Talent knows that his rude American Idol persona was faked for TV. It must be so weird to have strangers walking up to you, asking you to insult them. What a world.
However, Simon Cowell’s been in more unique circumstances than that, as he described some fans who had a more intimate proposal.
The AGT Judge Recalls A Couple Who Asked Him To Critique Their Bedroom Activities
Following the revelation about how many Americans are begging to be insulted by the harshest of American Idol’s ex-judges, Simon Cowell regaled the podcast host with another tale.
He recalled being in a restaurant one time — “This is a true story,” he says — and a man came over to say he loved Cowell’s show and asked if he’d take a picture with him. He then introduced the record exec to his wife and, as Cowell explains it, the man asked:
‘Would you judge us having sex?’ I’m like, ‘Are you winding me up?’ And he went, ‘No, we’ll pay you.’ ‘Well how much?’ And it actually was a lot of money. I thought, ‘Do I? No, I just can’t do it.’
I can see how the TV personality might have been caught off-guard by the direction that conversation took, but hey, you can’t blame a guy for shooting his shot. Closed mouths don’t get fed, right? It's not like they were asking him to provide his services for free!
So exactly how much did the reality competition judge turn down?
It was 150 grand.
I’m kind of intrigued by the terms of this request. Were the fans asking Cowell to insult them American Idol-style (“That was bloody awful! And why are you wearing that?”), or give more uplifting AGT-esque praise (“I didn’t like it. … I LOVED it!”)? Did they want live play-by-play commentary, or — in competition show tradition — for the judge to deliver his opinion after the performance was over?
These are questions that will never be answered because the judge apparently passed on the opportunity, but I can totally see why this fan interaction would stick out as one of the weirdest requests he’s gotten.
You can see more of Simon Cowell when America’s Got Talent premieres at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, May 27, on NBC and streaming the next day with a Peacock subscription.
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