Simon Cowell prepares for the fight as he beefs up his legal team after America’s Got Talent and NBC investigation calls out his snarky behavior. Cowell has always been known as the British straight talker who was not one to hold back an opinion when it came to a contestant's performance, but it seems that his tongue may have written a check he could not cash when it comes to the American network.
Cowell may be best known for his hit show and judge on American Idol and X-Factor which makes normal people into stars. Cowell is a businessman, A & R executive, talent manager, and television producer. He is the founder of his British entertainment company, Syco which combines both the music and television industries. After creating the new talent platform that is America's Got Talent with his company, he took it to Britain for Britain's Got Talent. Then the business mogul and producer went from behind the scenes to the front lines when he began on the judging panel in 2015 when he replaced Howard Stern.
After Gabrielle Union’s complaint about having to work in a toxic environment, the network decided to look into the culture at the competition show. Cowell, who created America’s Got Talent and also worked as an executive producer recently sought out Los Angeles based litigator, Larry Stein according to Deadline. The beefed-up legal team comes right after Union tweeted that she had a fruitful five-hour meeting the higher-ups at NBC that pertained to her firing from the series.
In the tweet, the actress told her followers that she was able to express herself and her truth. She told the executive her truth and that she hoped change could come from the situation. Shortly after the meeting took place, NBC announced that they were launching an investigation further into the situation in hopes of understanding what transpired. According to the source, much of the meeting spoke about Cowell’s sarcastic tongue and sometimes salty behavior. NBC was not the only outlet to launch an investigation into the show’s environment as SAG-AFTRA also announced that they would investigate America’s Got Talent.
While some of the facts are still a bit of shade's of grey, Union’s contract was dismissed last month after only working as a judge for one season. The actress had spoken about racially insensitive moments and problematic behaviors that she had encountered before she was let go. Not to be left out former judges, Sharon Osbourne and Howard Stern weighed in on the situation with Stern saying that Cowell had created sexist double standards. While Osbourne, who is also a British native said that America’s Got Talent was run like a boy's club. Telling viewers on The Talk that the boys looked out for one another and the women were not paid as much as the men, which Stern even agreed with - giving Union more validity to her claims. It seems like Cowell was right for beefing up his legal team with a Hollywood big-shot lawyer - he may very well need all the help he can get.
America's Got Talent premieres Monday, January 6th at 8pm EST on NBC.
Source: Deadline