America's Got Talent is the popular TV series that Simon Cowell is to thank for. Despite the show celebrating its 20th season, the TV talent competition's success was once highly doubted by Simon himself, believe it or not.
The TV judge transparently shared: "It was a difficult show to sell actually, to be honest with you. Because we made a pilot and the pilot was dreadful. I mean really, really bad. So, it was dead," per People.
Without hesitation, he called the seven-minute-long pilot "just about watchable." Simon wasn't a fan of the show's pilot at all, yet he continued to pitch it to networks. He recalled the time when NBC called him regarding the show.
He shared: "They called me, and they said, 'What's this new show like?' And I went, 'Oh it's brilliant.' And they said, 'Can we have a look at it?' And I said, 'Yeah, come over to the house.'"
To Simon's surprise, NBC was hooked and the rest is history. The TV star recalled: "They came over and I just showed two minutes or three minutes of this show. And they loved it. They bought it. And that was it."
Regardless of Simon's harsh opinion of the pilot, he's grateful that others saw the vision he wanted for the show. He added: "If they hadn't made that call or come to my house that day, we wouldn't [be] having this conversation today because the show, honestly, it was over."
When it came to Simon's inspiration behind the show, he acknowledged that it came from his deep love for TV competitions growing up. Simon expressed: "I loved them. The kind of acts I remember as a kid were those really wacky acts, where it just used to crack me up."
It was during his time as a judge on the Idol franchise, that he got the idea for AGT's creation. He recalled: "Once I'd done Idol and I enjoyed it, I kind of thought, 'I think I'd probably enjoy a show that has singers along with other acts.' It was a light bulb moment…and it evolved into what it is now."
The TV judge enjoys witnessing how the show has progressed over the years, and is a huge fan of the added quirks, such as the Golden Buzzers.
Simon shared: "I've seen this sort of evolution over the years of how things have just gotten bigger and better, more creative. And that is a really, really good feeling when you see that."
The TV star loves seeing the new concepts and performers that audition for the show each season, and he recognizes that he's always seeing something new.
He added: "Personally, I think the best thing we ever did was to say, 'Why don't we have a competition, which is a talent competition, where there are no restrictions?' To have that kind of freedom is brilliant because you're not restricted by anything and you're always constantly surprised by what people come up with."
When you love what you do, it doesn't feel like you're working, and Simon gets just that. He shared: "We always say it is the best job in the world doing this."