What would Fox's "American Idol" be without all those cups of Coke in front of the judges and red bubbles splashed across various backgrounds?

It was supposed to be Pepsi.

Photo: Mashroms Pepsi

"I remember trying to sell the idea of the program to a guy named Rick Rock at PepsiCo," Nigel Lythgoe, the show's co-creator, told me. Lythgoe is co-sponsor of Brit Week in Los Angeles this week (more on that later). But as this season's "Idol" heads into the final stretch-Lythgoe left the show last year-we spent a little time talking about the early part of this decade, when Lythgoe and his team came to America pitching the idea of a TV singing contest like no other. It seemed an easy sell.

They just couldn't sell it to Pepsi.

"I explained that we tell bad singers that they aren't very good," Lythgoe said, "and he (Rock) said, 'You have bad singers on the program?' 'Yeah, yeah, they're really bad.'" What's more, Lythgoe told the Pepsi team that, "There's this judge, Simon Cowell, he tells them they're bad. (Rock responded) 'He TELLS THEM THEY'RE BAD?'" Lythgoe said, "You could see the blood draining out of this guy's face, 'I don't want PepsiCo involved in this program at all.'"

You think that guy has any regrets??

As we all know, "Idol" has gone on to become the number one show in America time and time again, and Simon Cowell's brand of unvarnished truth has made him a national hero. But Lythgoe says when Pepsi passed, he went to Coke. "And the rest is history."

Meantime, I'd like to nominate Simon to head the TARP program. As one friend suggested, only Simon Cowell could look in some CEO's face and say, "Your restructuring plan is bloody awful - if I'm being honest, I could hear this at any Holiday Inn cocktail lounge in America."

Here is more of my interview with Nigel Lythgoe, who talks about why he thought up the idea of Brit Week, the unique relationship between Hollywood and the UK, and why Simon Cowell and YouTube sensation Susan Boyle have been such a hit ("I think having trained the caterpillars to act as eyebrows on her was probably her greatest gift.")

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