Kelvin McKenzie suggests it in his Sun column (on the page and the day I used to have MY column when he was Editor) and I endorse it - the only person to save both the TV and the music industries this decade.
And also, of course, my Bail Bond ten years ago.

Yes.

Without him the UK music industry would be over based on the success the others have had in the last 10 years.

Save the music industry? Pop and AI have pigeonholed the music industry presence to the masses to the lowest common denominator of pap so that kids now think this bad karaoke is what great music is. Kelly Clarkson arguably the biggest success from Cowell/Fuller can't sell out a theater in 2010.

True they moved plastic, but they did it with massive saturation marketing via TV. We've both known and done business with Cowell long before he was on television JK, and my opinion (and I like him) is that he is a savvy carnival barker with a conduit to a mass audience.

If I did a novelty record that sold 50M copies would they knight me? He moved product. He didn't discover the Beatles or Bacharach.

We now have an industry that is crippled for the time being. How is it saved by Cowell? Susan Boyle (moving plastic)....maybe???

I'm sure they will knight him sooner or later.

Well GG there are a lot of things Simon ISN'T but the collapse of our beloved industry is the fault of many others - Simon has walked his own (very limited) road and broken generally average acts but sold millions and, like Glee (which I don't personally like either) has sustained an interest in music that very few others have done.
Sadly I was bumped out of the music industry due to events beyond my control. I like to think I would have changed things (I had just been offered the role of global EMI boss). But I couldn't and it strikes me that very few others took control.
So Simon is useless in 95% of music but by God he has kept the other 5% alive and holding the entire industry up because of it.

Simon Cowell knighted - words fail me!

He epitomises for me all that I loathe in today's entertainment world. Unoriginality combined with preening arrogance. He'll invent the wheel one of these days and get praised as a genius for doing so. In fact, I'm just waiting for him to come up with the idea of knighthoods. He's brilliant enough.

Well Simon got his BAFTA and gave a speech which showed what a good guy he is.

He also didn't get a BAFTA and his face showed what a poor loser he is!

A better sign would be sacking Max Clifford.

Ah Dex but that's what I love about Simon; he really hates losing and he doesn't have enough PC control to smile nicely!

And Pru; it was JK who suggested the vile Clifford although the horrid man was busy organising my own demise at the time; he may be vile but he's damn good at it.

You're far too generous, JK.

For "Services to his own wallet" ?

The next step is surely for his hairdresser to get an award. That's the '11' on the Nigel Tufnell 'world gone mad' meter.

Simon is no better or worse a human being than the vast majority of those are knighted. He is a clever, ambitious ,occasionally mendacious but ruthlessly efficent tv entrepeneur.
Lord Grade,David Frost, Simon Dee and Micky Most ALL had some effect on their time in television but only Lew Grade came close to Cowell in influence and power.

ITV was strong and healthy when Grade and his rivals were around. ITV is now on its knees. Historically, it's not a great comparison when judging the degree of influence of Cowell. Now it's like someone boarding a ghost ship and declaring himself captain. And it's typical but sad that the likes of Denis Forman - who was influential AND talented AND cultured AND relatively humble - just gets ignored when such a tradition is discussed. Cowell most impresses people with no memory, no sense of history, no awareness of the broad range of culture and no great sense of curiosity. It's enough to make John Stuart Mill throw up all over Jeremy Bentham's push-pin table.

Excellent column in yesterday's Times by Andrew Billen backing Simon all the way.