- Network: Netflix
- Series Premiere Date: Dec 10, 2025
Critic Reviews
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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.
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I must say I found the auditioning bits boring (fast forward if you feel the same; it’s lots of young men singing whiney songs), and Cowell himself much more interesting.
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The star of this show is Cowell and Cowell alone. The group – all the identically haired 16-year-olds who did most of the work – are presented as an afterthought.
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A show so dated and derivative that it’s as if the last 20 years never happened. But it’s easy to see why Cowell wanted to make it. This is a vanity project from a man desperate for relevance and deeply bored.