Simon Cowell Brings 'X Factor' to Vegas Stage

The Hollywood Reporter has printed that Simon Cowell, of American Idol and The X Factor fame, will be launching The X Factor talent show in Las Vegas in a global pay-per-view Internet venture with British retail billionaire Philip Green.

Reportedly, the two are in negotiations with an executive of a major hotel chain to secure a venue for the new show. 

The X Factor is a franchise originating in the United Kingdom, where it was devised as a replacement for Pop Idol. The programs are produced by executive producer Simon Cowell and his company Syco TV (which will be merged into Greenwell Entertainment as a result of a recent partnership with Sir Philip Green). The competitions, now held in various countries, pit talented contestants against each other. These contestants are talented aspiring pop singers and performers drawn from public auditions. The "X Factor" of the title refers to the undefinable "something" that makes for star quality. The prize is usually a recording contract (in addition to the publicity that appearance in the later stages of the show itself generates, not only for the winner but also for other highly ranked contestants). The format creator is Simon Cowell who also judges and mentors on the UK series. The UK version is responsible for the launch of Shayne Ward, Leona Lewis, Leon Jackson, Alexandra Burke, and JLS.

The venture involves staging two talent shows a week in Las Vegas and broadcasting them over the Internet on a pay-per-view basis.

Says Green to GQ Magazine, "It'll all be online. You have 20, 30, 40 million people tuning in twice a week. You bring two or three hundred million viewers to a venue. It's turning it up a peg."

If the Vegas endeavor proves successful, Cowell and Green plan to stage X Factor competitions in countries all over the world for paid broadcast.

Cowell allegedly got the idea after Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle exploded on YouTube after performing I Dreamed A Dream on Britain's Got Talent this year. Boyle has since signed with Cowell's Syco label, and her debut album topped U.S. charts this week.