Mr. Murdoch, as he often did, sat in on a meeting that winter to go over the full development slate for the network. When it came time to talk about reality programs, he jumped right in and asked about "Idol." Mr. Darnell was ready with his plans for how to execute the format. "Here's what I want to do," he began.

Mr. Murdoch cut him off. "You don't change a thing," he said, according to one of the Fox executives in the meeting. "This show works in England. And you're going to make the same show they made in England. The problem with you Hollywood people is you always want to change things and you ruin everything."

Mr. Murdoch had not likely studied the structure of the British format to determine that it was flawless. But he did know that the network would not have "Idol" had he not insisted on it.

No one would think of challenging Mr. Murdoch's views, but some Fox executives really did believe that the British format had some obvious flaws. For one thing, it had two hosts, which surely made the show seem unnecessarily cluttered. And the four-judge panel invited trouble because it was an even number. If the judges split two to two, the format called for Mr. Cowell to break the tie, but that seemed actually to reduce the number of judges to one.

FOX had not signed Mr. Cowell to a contract -- at his insistence. He told the Fox executives, "I'll do one season and see how it goes." That was music to the ears of the Fox group, still worried about the expense of this little summer show that had suddenly grown to 15 episodes. Nobody really knew how the show would do. Mr. Cowell was still emphasizing that he was in it not for the fame or the salary, but for the money that would come from having yet another hot artist for his label. He did not even acquire an American agent -- not right away.

The whole Fox network operation impressed Mr. Cowell because there was never a hint of an attempt to censor him or to turn him into a sweetheart of a guy. Fox seemed to him to be bravely acknowledging that the American audience, like the British audience, was ready to rebel against what Mr. Cowell called "the terrible political correctness that invaded America and England."

To Mr. Cowell, it looked as if Fox was going to allow the audience to see something that wasn't sanitized for a change. They would embrace the fact that with Mr. Cowell doing the talking, "lots of useless people were going to be told that they were useless."