Another day, yet ANOTHER lawsuit involving American Idol. From the Hollywood Reporter:
Five years ago, American Idol was king of the television landscape, a seemingly invincible ratings winner, when Apollo Global Management, one of the world’s biggest private equity firms, made a highly leveraged deal to acquire Core Media Group, the production company behind the singing competition show. Since the $510 million acquisition, ratings tanked, the show was canceled, and in April, Core filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Now, a new lawsuit comes along that charges Apollo with working with 21st Century Fox and Endemol on an “elaborate joint venture arrangement designed to strip Core of its remaining cash, transfer Core’s corporate opportunities to its competitors, and ultimately leave Core to default on its obligations to its lenders.”
Read more about the lawsuit at the link above. That Endemol/Shine deal started and ended quietly. Now, we’re learning about all the complications behind the scenes.
There was so much talk at the end of American Idol’s last season about the show returning quickly in one form or another. But the tangled mess that is CORE really does not bode well for an imminent resurrection. Particularly now that creator Simon Fuller has been been terminated.
In fact, it appears that the grandaddy of modern singing shows met it’s demise due to some pretty terrible management. What a shame.
