Britney Spears is reportedly making $15 million to judge the X-Factor this year. Jennifer Lopez reportedly made $15 million to judge American Idol last year. J. Lo announced her decision to leave Idol a week or so ago. Clearly, Britney has a job, but imagine for a second that J. Lo announced right after Idol ended that she wouldn't come back for a third season. Imagine, then, that while Idol would need to replace J. Lo, X-Factor needs two female judges to replace Paula Abdul and Nicole Scherzinger. That means Britney would now be available for both shows. Question is, who gets her and how much does she make.
We all know Simon wanted her for X-Factor (and got her). We don't know if Idol would have any interest in her. We do know that Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe said back in 2007 that he had no interest in Britney performing on the show. Of course, it's been five years since then and Britney's better. Idol, on the other hand, has seen ratings decrease to the point where last season's finale was the lowest rated ever. Judging by the list of contenders to replace J. Lo (and other departing judge Steven Tyler), they obviously want to make a splash. Britney would be a splash.
While Nigel said no thanks to Britney performing, he never mentioned if he'd be for Britney judging. Regardless of what he thinks of Britney personally, you can't replace an A-list star like J. Lo with a B-list star. Therefore, let's assume he, in wanting to make that big splash, put Britney on his radar (no pun intended . . . actually, pun intended).
In this situation, Britney's being courted by two shows - Idol and X-Factor. Since J. Lo reportedly wanted a raise to $17 million, Idol would most likely have to come in around that number in its first offer to Britney. For her, she originally wanted, according to reports, $20 million for X-Factor. The show offered a reported $10 million. In our imagined scenario, X-Factor wouldn't have been able to low-ball her like that because Idol would have swooped in with a stronger offer and that'd be that.
Just because Britney wants $20 million doesn't mean both shows - or either show - would offer that much to start. Most likely, Idol and X-Factor would probably come in around $16 million. From there, it becomes a game of who wants Britney more. Would either show shell out the reported $20 million that Britney originally wanted?
I think Simon really wanted Britney, but I don't think Idol would go all out. It seems from reports that the show is trying to cut costs. In this scenario, X-Factor gets Britney, but pays a couple million more than they currently are. Of course, if the media took the story of two shows fighting for Britney and ran with it, Idol may not give in so easily. Otherwise, the general public may see X-Factor signing Britney as a sign that it is now the #1 show. In that case, Britney could easily get $20 million. I still think X-Factor would win out, because I think Simon really wants to beat Idol.
Either way, it would have been a very interesting few months and made for a plethora of good stories.
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