Mariah Carey on the X Factor

Mariah Carey

The 50-year-old was last night named best TV judge at the annual Variety Awards at the Grosvenor House hotel only hours after it emerged he had convinced singer Mariah Carey to appear exclusively on the X Factor.

Cowell is understood to have forced Carey to pull out of a planned performance on the BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing on Saturday night because it is a rival show.

The singer dropped out of the programme after Cowell told her representatives that he would not allow her to perform on next week’s X Factor if she appeared on Strictly.

Sources at the corporation said BBC executives felt it was “completely unprofessional” for Carey to pull out of the provisional booking. Her place had to be filled by performers from West End show Jersey Boys.

It comes as Cowell was crowned best TV judge at the Variety Club’s annual awards. The prize cements his place as one of the leading figures in showbusiness with an estimated fortune of £120 million and rising.

As executive producer on the X Factor he signed a golden handcuffs deal worth £20 million with ITV in 2006 to make him the highest paid British TV star of all time. But that is small fry compared with his earnings across the Atlantic where he brandishes his acerbic put-downs as a judge on the US prime-time talent show Americal Idol.

According to business magazine Forbes he was the highest paid man on American television last year, earning £45 million. The reality double bill of X Factor and I’m a Celebrity last night is also expected to have given ITV its biggest ratings for more than five years.

About 18 million people are believed to have tuned in to last night’s results show to see Jamie Archer voted off.

Analysts believed at least 10 million people would have stayed with ITV as it scheduled the first instalment of the new series of I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here immediately afterwards, delivering ITV1 its highest non-sporting viewing figures since 2003 when an episode of Coronation Street drew 17.6 million viewers. Cowell collected his Variety Club award via videolink.