Simon Fuller Starts Legal Battle For X Factor Name-Check
The man responsible for the creation of American Idol is filing a lawsuit agaist Fox over new rival show The X Factor. Simon Fuller, who invented the Idol format, believes that he is entitled to an executive producer’s fee and a listing in the credits on Simon Cowell’s similar production, set to be premiered in September.
A court in Los Angeles (USA) will be responsible for the case, with the prosecution claiming that Fuller had made a deal o
ver a fee and producer recognition in 2004 as part of an agreement that could see the X Factor format (which was originally considered as a copyright infringment against Idol) allowed on American TV screens only as of 2011.
The lawsuit suggests that producers Fremantle North America and Fox are not honouring the agreement. It claims: “Fox and Fremantle made hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to the creative efforts of Fuller. Now, when it is time to finally perform on these unequivocal promises, Fox and Fremantle refuse to provide Fuller his executive producer credit for defendants’ new television show, The X Factor, and refuse to pay Fuller and executive producer fee ‘commensurate with his duties and stature in the entertainment industry’.
Fuller also notes Fox’s owners News Corp’s recent phone hacking misdemenours (in British tabloid newspaper News of The World), with the statement concluding: “Defendants’ refusal to honour their promises made to Fuller is particularly malicious given that but for Fuller’s agreement, the X Factor show would not be able to broadcast in the United States at all. Fox, and ultimately its parent company, News Corporation, have demonstrated a callous disregard for Fuller’s rights which, given recent developments, reflects a corporate culture – if not a pattern and practice – of wrongful behaviour.”
Fox had mediated in a discussion between Cowell and Fuller agreeing on the broadcasting of the separate formats in 2005, which included Cowell postponing his X Factor USA plans and remaining remaining as a judge on Idol until at least 2011, with Idol in return leaving the British Isles. With the two shows on at separate times of the year on Fox, it seems to make little sense to argue over credit listings other than on principle, but will Fuller get what he wants from this case?
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