Does he still got it? In Simon Cowell: The Next Act, his new six-episode docuseries for Netflix, the talent finder and singing competition smart aleck puts his reputation on the line, pledging to build a brand-new boy band from the ground up, on a short timeframe, and inside a changed media and music industry environment that today looks toward TikTok and YouTube as breakout platforms. And he’s not just behind a desk. In Next Act, the singing auditions and talent wrangling typical of shows Cowell’s been involved with here combine with segments that show off his life with partner Lauren Silverman and their young son Eric.
Opening Shot: Simon Cowell is getting his hair did at home. He’s primping and primping – seems to fit in with what we know about him – when Lauren Silverman pops in. It’s taking too long. “Because your head’s too big?” Zing!
The Gist: “As much as I love my job on TV,” Cowell says in his Next Act voiceover, “I miss where I started, signing artists and mainly working with bands.” Cowell says the talent search they’re starting will be messy and raw. He says it won’t just be about impressive vocal talent, but about a certain “Glow,” something someone younger than Cowell’s 65 would probably call “Rizz.” But it has to start somewhere, and for that, Cowell emphasizes in-person auditions, contrasting their value with the bedroom and chatroom discoveries that brought us stars like Justin Bieber.
We see the Cowell team at work. It includes Tayla, a creative director. Dan on digital strategy. Kamille, a singer, songwriter, and producer. And Savan Kotecha, who co-wrote One D’s “What Makes You Beautiful.” As the team works with the boss to establish a media campaign promoting the upcoming Next Act auditions, we also catch more shots of Simon and Lauren’s home life together. The two sides will also merge – at one point, a frustrated Cowell stalks out of a team meeting, and Silverman has to talk him down.
Eventually, The Next Act will bring its fresh-faced hopefuls from the UK to Miami, where they’ll undergo vocal training and industry refining. But early on, they’re still searching for those fresh faces. There’s a “ginormous gap in the market” for a boy band, Cowell says, drawing a distinction between what he envisions and the K-pop revolution of the last few years. (Isn’t BTS a boy band? Apparently not, according to Cowell?) As Next Act hits Liverpool for its first round of live auditions, you can see the longtime TV judge falling back on some of his catty habits. But he also seems really engaged with finding the right fit for his ground-up pop project.
Photo: Netflix
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? We thought Pop Star Academy: Katseye was a particularly well-executed version of what Simon Cowell’s attempting with The Next Act. Staying with Netflix, Building the Band switched up the competition format by placing aspiring singers in separate pods – only their voices could be heard. And Cowell also appears in Boybands Forever, a recent BBC Two docuseries that revisits the boy band era of two and three decades past.
Our Take: It’s just this website’s opinion, but we’ve never considered Simon Cowell particularly likeable. We always felt like his evolution as a go-to host for desks-and-singers competition shows was backed by his music industry experience and penchant for being a needler. You know, makes great TV and all that. So we were surprised when right from the start, The Next Act presented as a docuseries instead of another take on his typical format. He’s an exec producer on the series, so it’s not like he doesn’t have final edit. But it’s certainly more freewheeling, less top-down. He’s not just launching salvos from behind a desk. Next Act is as much a window on his personal universe as it is another showcase for his talent judging rep. Our judgement, after looking through this window? Still not likeable!
Viewers’ mileage on this will vary. But the Next Act portions where it’s Simon and Lauren at home feel interchangeable with any other celebrity lifestyle reality show. More interesting in the early going is how Cowell and his team, all introduced as veterans, both of the entertainment industry and working with him, will bring off their latest boy band project. We liked how The Next Act showed setbacks to their preparations – like nobody really showing up to the early auditions. And while he clearly enjoys being the boss, it’s also clear he won’t find immediate lightning in a bottle just because he once signed One D and Fifth Harmony. In short, they got work to do. And they still gotta find the right talent to mold. We’re gonna stick with Simon Cowell: The Next Act, because now that he’s unveiling the personal side of his life, we want to see where and how that stuff intersects with what he does for a living.
Performance Worth Watching: By now, we’ve all watched hundreds of TV auditions. Thousands? The original American Idol premiered over 20 years ago! So it’s with a certain sense of understanding when Cowell and his Next Act team describe the intangibles they’re searching for. And damn – from where we’re sitting, at least a couple of the kids auditioning in Liverpool look like they could be five-tool players.
Sex and Skin: Nah.
Parting Shot: In upcoming scenes from The Next Act, we see some bonding from the boy band hopefuls, some bickering between Simon and Lauren, and the man in the middle getting emotional. [Cowell, head in hands] “The pressure is immense.”
Sleeper Star: Tania, a talent and creative consultant on the Cowell team, is one of the only people to push back on the bossman’s early assumptions. “Sorry for saying this, but I think it’s silly to assume that these kids know that you found and discovered and created One Direction, because they’re from a different generation.”
Most Pilot-y Line: It’s not quite humility Cowell channels, but he realizes the gravity of his instant boy band challenge. “If I can’t get it right now, I’m gonna have to accept the fact that I lost whatever I had before.”
Our Call: Stream It. Simon Cowell: The Next Act combines the homelife version of the host’s caddish personality with the process of finding, founding and making a boy band flourish. We’re just intrigued enough to see if Cowell really can go from zero to One Direction in the space of six episodes.
Johnny Loftus (@johnnyloftus.bsky.social) is a Chicago-based writer. A veteran of the alternative weekly trenches, his work has also appeared in Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, The All Music Guide, and The Village Voice.
