Simon Cowell once turned down chance to host own TV show

Simon Cowell once turned down the chance to host his own TV show.

The 63-year-old music mogul has appeared as a judge on The X Factor and his Got Talent franchise over the years but revealed that when he was given the opportunity to front his own chat show, he got "really stressed out" at the thought of chatting all day.

He told E! News: "I was offered one once and literally I got to the point where they built the set and I started to get anxious and then really stressed out. I just walked out of the meeting and I said 'I literally couldn't do this.' I just couldn't talk to people all day long. I'm not very good at talking."

Meanwhile, the Syco founder has worked with the likes of Dannii Minogue, Sharon Osbourne, Paula Abdul and Mel B on his talent shows in the past but recently revealed he would like to appear on TV again alongside pop superstar Britney Spears, who served as a judge with him on The X Factor USA in 2012.

He said: "We spent so long on the phone talking about X Factor before we did it. There's a side of Britney a lot of people don't know. I mean, I was on the phone to her two or three hours every time.

"She was super smart, lovely ideas about how to launch someone else's career, which is critical if you're going to be a judge on one of these shows."

Simon added that he had a "fantastic" relationship with the Toxic hitmaker — who regained control of her fortune and various aspects of her life when a conservatorship governed by her family was terminated in 2021 — and thinks it would be "amazing" to reunite with her on another show.

He added: "So I had a fantastic relationship with her. If you're watching Britney and we make a show, please come back and do it with me. It would be amazing. I adore her. She really is interesting and she is so talented."

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