Simon Cowell was a judge on the television talent show Pop Idol, which began in 2001. According to Britannica, the show’s popularity “was partly due to Cowell’s acerbic put-downs of contestants.” Hello magazine called him “Mr Nasty.”
In November 2001, the magazine Spiked noted that the judging had “raised whimpers from those who believe young people should not be receiving such a publicly hard time.”