Beyoncé to Join X FACTOR Judge's Panel?
The New York Post reports that Simon Cowell has offered superstar Beyoncé Knowles a record-breaking $100 million to join the judge's panel on the next season of Fox's THE X FACTOR. If accepted, the amount would mark the highest paid salary ever on television.
The world's number one pop singer recently gave birth to her first child. Cowell is hoping the promise of a steady, weekly job would entice the singer to accept his offer so that she could remain close to home during her daughter's early years.
Rumors had recently circulated that Cowell had planned to offer recording artist Mariah Carey the gig, but according to the report, that offer is no longer on the table. A source close to the show commented, “He (Cowell) wants a big-name female star on the panel. Mariah [Carey] is good, but she’s not that hot today. He wants Beyoncé because that would immediately give him the bounce needed to beat ‘American Idol.’ ”
Knowles appeared on the British version of the X FACTOR in 2008 as a show mentor.
The first season of the singing competition was a bit of a disappoinment for Cowell. While it averaged 12 million viewers each week and was a top-10 show, it did not draw the 20 million viewers that Cowell had predicted it would before the season began. It was recently announced that the show's judges Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger and X FACTOR host Steve Jones had been fired from the show.
