For years, Simon Cowell has been the tough TV judge on shows like American Idol and The X Factor. Now he is leaving the judging desk to build a real boy band from scratch on Netflix, and the whole process is being filmed.
“Simon Cowell: The Next Act” is his new Netflix series, following him as he searches the world, cuts thousands of hopefuls down to 16, and throws them into an intense boy band bootcamp in Miami.
Cameras follow everything: open calls, late-night meetings, studio fights, broken egos, and the moment a final group is born and drops its first single. It has the high drama of “Drive to Survive,” but with microphones instead of race cars.
For the first time, we also see Cowell himself without the TV filter. The series shows how his serious bike accident, depression, and time away from the spotlight changed him, and why he says, “I miss where I started.”
The stakes could not be higher. If this boy band flops, Cowell jokes the headline will be, “Simon Cowell has lost it.” If it works, it proves something harsh about old-school TV contests: years of Idol and The Voice winners, and how few became true global stars.
He already helped launch One Direction and, from it, Harry Styles. Now he is trying to do it again in a world ruled by K-pop and TikTok. When this show hits Netflix, you will either be discovering the next huge boy band…or wondering how you missed the moment it all began.
Simon Cowell Aims to Recreate One Direction Success With Next Act
Before they were global stars, the five boys who became One Direction had all just been told no. It was a last minute decision, in a small room with headshots on a table, that turned five solo rejects into one supergroup. That turning point is the blueprint for The Next Act and the reason Cowell believes lightning really can strike twice in music for a new generation of fans.
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The Simon we see here is not only the sharp judge from TV, but someone who has come frighteningly close to losing everything. After his 2020 e-bike crash, breaking his back and facing months of pain and fear, he has been open about depression, recovery, and leaning on his family. That experience is the emotional engine behind The Next Act.