X Factor Costs $3.5 Million An Episode

X Factor judge Simon Cowell has revealed that each episode of the US version costs $3.5 million.

He told the Wall Street Journal: 'This better bloody work or I am in huge trouble.'

The X Factor's budget is $1.2 million more than The Voice's $2.3 Million. I don't have numbers for American Idol, but this year saw a 17% increase in operating cost thanks to Ryan Seacrest's salary.

From Daily Mail:

He still admits the U.S. show could go either way. Recalling an audition in New Jersey just after Cheryl Cole was fired, he said: 'It felt like there were 250 people in that room and every one of them was petrified.

'I thought to myself, 'This is either going to work or it's not, and there's nothing I can do about it'.'