Cowell admits 2011 was the year his ego was put in check

Washington: Simon Cowell has revealed that his overwhelming success with ‘American Idol’ in the U.S. and ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and ‘The X Factor’ in the U.K. in 2010, left him “a bit too cocky.” The 52-year-old television personality admitted that when he decided to launch an American version of ‘The X Factor’, he predicted that it would attract at least 20 million viewers each week. He even left the British shows ostensibly to focus his attention on the U.S. However the reality television judge got a “big wake-up call” when the U.S. ‘X Factor’ failed even to garner the number of viewers that Fox had promised advertisers, forcing it to give them “make goods.” The British shows also declined in the ratings. “We went into 2011 thinking, ‘It’s all going to be easy’ and of course it wasn’t. It was the year my ego was put in check,” Cowell told a daily. In 2012, he said, he will be returning to the judging panel on ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ and possibly the British ‘X Factor’ as well. Cowell has also disclosed that he’s in talks with Virgin’s Richard Branson on bringing the winner of this year’s BGT along on the first commercial space flight planned for later this year. The winner, he noted, could be “the first singer or dog act, whatever, performing in space. ... I think it’s great. Of course we have to think about the details, I mean, if you’re a juggler then we’ll need to make heavier balls.” ANI