Simon Cowell Signs Record Five-Year Deal For ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ With ITV
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Simon Cowell has put pen to paper on a new five-year deal for Britain’s Got Talent with UK broadcaster ITV.
It represents ITV’s longest commitment to the variety show since it launched in 2007 in the UK, and comes as America’s Got Talent is mired in controversy amid an NBC investigation into working conditions.
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Britain’s Got Talent will remain on British television until 2024, while the deal also guarantees another season of The X Factor in 2020. Both shows are made by Cowell’s production outfit Syco Entertainment and Fremantle’s Thames Television.
Traditionally, Cowell has packaged up Britain’s Got Talent and The X Factor in three-year ITV deals, the most recent of which was signed in 2016. But the diverging fortunes of the shows has meant a new approach to the latest agreement.
Cowell said: “I am thrilled our relationship with ITV is to continue for the foreseeable future. ITV has always been home to Britain’s Got Talent, The X Factor — and me! — and this long-term commitment shows the mutual respect in our partnership.”
The five-year Britain’s Got Talent deal is one of the biggest commitments to an entertainment show on British television and will take the brand — co-produced by Fremantle’s Thames TV — into its 18th season. Cowell serves as a judge on the format, which is hosted by British duo Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly.
It comes as America’s Got Talent is at the center of a firestorm in the U.S., with NBC investigating Gabrielle Union’s complaints of a “toxic” workplace culture on the show. Deadline reported over the weekend that Cowell has retained Los Angeles-based litigator Larry Stein as the NBC probe continues.
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