Simon Cowell planning 1million pounds-prize show in UK

Simon Cowell is reportedly planning the "biggest, noisiest and most expensive" television show in UK history with a jackpot price of 1million pounds.

And his ‘Red And Black’ show, which will be screened live by ITV1 later this year, will be so big that it will be held in a giant 17,000-seater arena.

Thousands of hopefuls will pack into Wembley Arena or London’s O2, competing for the chance to win a one million pounds jackpot on the spin of a roulette wheel.

Red And Black has been created by Simon’s Syco company, along with ITV and will be fronted by Ant and Dec, both 35.

Sources claim the show would start out with hundreds of thousands of entrants being whittled down to around 17,000 who will then be given tickets to the show at the massive arena venue.

Each evening during the course of a week of live broadcasting in September, the hopefuls will be cut down, until just one person is left with the chance of spinning for the jackpot.

“Simon is very excited about this programme. It will be easily the biggest show ever seen on British television,” the Daily Star quoted an insider as saying.

“He has been working on the concept for some time and at last everything has fallen into place and the show is good to go. It is massive in the number of contests and also the huge prize on offer on the spin of a roulette wheel – a 1m pounds fortune resting on whether someone chooses either red or black. Details are still being worked out on how people will be chosen for the arena section, but it is likely to involve some form of competition.

“We’ve never seen anything like Red And Black in the UK before. It is going to be big, noisy and expensive, a real telly event.

“It is not only a massive gamble for the contestant, but also for Simon and ITV, but they are confident it will be a big hit,” the insider added.