Inside Simon Cowell’s Next Act: Meet the Top Contenders to Watch
Simon Cowell storms back on Netflix with Simon Cowell: The Next Act, a high-stakes hunt to forge the next global boy band. After scouring the UK and Ireland and hearing more than 1,000 hopefuls, he’s whittled the field to 16 standout teens ready to fight for the spotlight.
Simon Cowell is back doing the most Simon Cowell thing possible: building a new boy band on Netflix and betting his career on it. The show is called 'Simon Cowell: The Next Act,' and yes, he literally says if it flops, he’s done. More on that in a second.
The setup
Cowell held open auditions across the U.K. and Ireland, hitting London, Dublin, and Liverpool. Over 1,000 hopefuls tried out. From there he whittled it down, eventually landing on 16 teenagers who flew to Miami for a boot camp of vocal training, group work, and coaching from top music producers. It wasn’t just about who could sing — he was watching for chemistry, stage presence, and whether these kids could actually function like a band.
Meet the Top 16
- Aron (16) — England
- Cruz (19) — England
- Danny (16) — England
- Evan (18) — England
- Filip (20) — Czech Republic
- Hendrik (19) — England
- Jake E-B (18) — England
- Jake G. (18) — England
- Joe (19) — Ireland
- John (17) — England
- Josh (17) — England
- Leon (17) — England
- Max (16) — England
- Nicolas (16) — Portugal
- Samuel (19) — England
- Sean (19) — Ireland
All episodes dropped at once — and so did the winners
The six-episode series released on Netflix on December 10, 2025, and since everything landed the same day, the winners were revealed immediately too. Cowell originally wanted a five-piece. Then he changed his mind and kept seven because the group dynamic clicked better than he expected.
The final lineup: Cruz, Danny, Josh, Sean, Nicolas, John, and Hendrik.
Fun wrinkle: Cruz, Danny, and Josh are childhood friends, and they were the first three Cowell locked in. After that, he used photoshoots, rehearsal footage, and actual hangout time to figure out the last spots. The harshest cut came when he dropped Samuel, saying Sam "looked lost" and "didn’t really fit in." After that, he couldn’t bring himself to cut anyone else.
The band name (and the label)
The seven signed with Universal Music and, after a shaky start, apparently won over the execs with how tight they were as a unit. The group chose the name 'December 10' — the show’s release date — and they plan to celebrate it every year. Naming your band after a premiere date is... bold. Memorable, though.
The stakes, in his own words
Cowell being Cowell, he framed this like a do-or-die mission. He’s the guy who launched One Direction, Little Mix, and Fifth Harmony via The X Factor machine, so the bar is high — and the market has shifted hard toward K-pop and solo acts. He knows it.
"I’ve put my head on the block. If it doesn’t work, it would feel like the end."
What would be the end? "My career."
"If I can’t get it right now, I have to accept that I’ve lost what I had before."
His longtime partner Lauren Silverman says he’s doing this partly to prove to himself he’s still relevant. Cowell also admits he wanted his son, Eric, to see what he actually does — and yeah, he gets a little sentimental about that.
The surprising part behind the scenes
This might be the most unexpected detail in the whole thing: despite the Cowell brand, he initially got just 160 applications. That’s shockingly low for a call to build a new boy band. The team had to amp up social media outreach and tap influencers to get more teenagers in the door. Not exactly the factory-line days of The X Factor, which is kind of the point of this series — the game has changed.
And the chatter
Some fans are cautiously watching, especially given the long-running discourse around how hard previous boy bands were worked and the whole business-side messiness around who owns what (see: One Direction’s name). But that’s baggage from a different era; this show is Cowell trying to prove he can still read the room in 2025.
Where to watch
'Simon Cowell: The Next Act' is streaming now on Netflix in the US. We’ll see if December 10 turns into an actual thing — or if Cowell’s big swing lands like a greatest hits tour.