Teen pop idol Justin Bieber has some of the most hard-core Twitter followers on the planet.
Will Young from Pop Idol set record sales in the UK last February with his first single.
Pop Idol debuted in October 2001 on iTV to 5.2 million viewers and was an instant hit.
But part of the Pop Idol deal is that you cannot have it all your own way.
Cowell was originally just a judge on Pop Idol and he got the music rights to the winners.
FORBES: 'American Idol' Co-Creator Sues For Producing Credit on 'X Factor'
She said they talked about Gareth Gates from Pop Idol later on and then hugged and said goodbye.
Pop Idol took the UK by storm when it began at the end of 2001, continuing into early 2002.
Lythgoe says all this has helped make American Idol, like its British predecessor Pop Idol, the ultimate water cooler program.
Then when she was 16, she gave reality TV a try by auditioning for Pop Idol, singing Nina Simone's Feeling Good.
And, with the Pop Idol theme tune blaring out every other second, it was clear that no risks would be taken.
Simon Fuller's figures came both from his share in Pop Idol and his management of pop acts such as S Club Seven.
So he created his own show, The X Factor in the U.K. Fuller sued saying the show was too similar to Pop Idol.
FORBES: 'American Idol' Co-Creator Sues For Producing Credit on 'X Factor'
Indubitably, this will affect sales, and no longer will he be known as the pop idol, but now as the proverbial gay pop idol.
The British creator of Pop Idol and US version American Idol sued Fox and producers FremantleMedia, seeking a credit and fees from the US X Factor.
In 2004 he quit Pop Idol, effectively killing it, and launched The X Factor, an audition show featuring groups and individual singers with no age limit.
Refusing to see his dream shattered, he secured a big-label record deal, and stood defiantly against a legal challenge from Pop Idol's makers to release his single.
This man has proved what we already knew - that he is certainly no Gareth Gates and their Pop Idol rivalry is pretty much where the similarities end.
Rik Waller came under the spotlight during the competition for having a sensational voice but critics said that his large size precluded him from becoming a fully-fledged Pop Idol.
They were obviously written as an ode to her success on the Pop Idol show: "Some people wait a lifetime for a moment like this - I can't believe it's happening to me".
But a spokeswoman from Pop Idol told BBC News Online the pair had been asked by presenters Ant McPartlin and Declan Donnelly whether they were drunk, and denied there had been any unfair editing.
Even Fox was lukewarm, refusing to pay for the show, until Rupert Murdoch's daughter Elisabeth, already a big Pop Idol fan, told her father he'd be a fool to pass up an American version.
Mix one part Big Brother with one part Popstars then drizzle one part Pop Oil... sorry Pop Idol, mix for 13 weeks and cream the million singles that will be sold by each artist.
The show gave ITV1 its biggest ratings hit on a Saturday since Gareth Gates and Will Young fought it out to be crowned Pop Idol in February, with a 36% of the watching public.
There are reports that Simon Fuller, who created Pop Idol in the U.K. which morphed into American Idol here, is suing Fox for an executive producer credit on the upcoming talent show The X Factor.
FORBES: 'American Idol' Co-Creator Sues For Producing Credit on 'X Factor'
Unofficial overnight viewing figures show that about 5.8 million tuned in to see the result - still lower than its ITV1 rival Pop Idol which attracted 6.2 million, and was shown an hour earlier at 9pm.
The whole Pop Idol thing may be geared for commercial gain, but there can be no doubt that it will also raise the standard of what is expected from emerging artists too, which benefits us all.
Fuller sued Cowell for copyright infringement, over claims The X Factor copied the format of Fuller's show, Pop Idol - the original forerunner to American Idol - which was screened in the UK from 2001 to 2003.
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