Thou Shalt Not Worship False Idols
According to TMZ, which broke the story, the deal fell apart even before Idol‘s co-owners — Fremantle Media and Core Media Group — could even mount a counter-offer to the networks. As the story goes, Fremantle also owns America’s Got Talent, and TMZ says Freemantle was pushing hard to pressure Core into agreeing to accept the NBC offer. TMZ says execs at Core felt that Fremantle had a conflict of interest and was pushing Idol to make AGT the cornerstone of a year-round talent competition, and by doing so, was trying to diminish the unique value of Idol. As TMZ said, “the two companies could not see eye to eye,” adding, “all the negotiations have been shelved.”