Cowell: Quitting Idol 'Feels Right'

Simon Cowell has three hit shows worldwide, including America’s most popular; he pulls in $36 million a year from Fox; and the success of Susan Boyle is raising the talent guru’s profile even higher. But, he tells the New York Times, he’s not backing off statements to British media that he’s thinking of quitting American Idol after another season. The plan “still feels right.”

“When I signed the latest extension on Idol through next season, it felt like that was going to be the right amount of time,” Cowell said. He’s not trying to cash in by stirring departure fears, he insists. “I don’t want to get bored, and I don’t want the audience to get bored.” For American Idol, his departure could be “catastrophic,” says a media buyer. But Cowell says the show would recover. (More Simon Cowell stories.)