Just days before the fifth season of American Idol started last week, British judge Simon Cowell was engaged in a frantic tussle for a new US visa.
Having applied to the US consulate in Mauritius, where he was taking a holiday before heading back to the States America for the show's launch, he 'sensed a certain reluctance' among American officials to renew his papers, he revealed last week. They relented in the end, but only after a battle.
The thousands of wannabe pop stars sent home from auditions in tears with vicious insults from Idol's 'Mr Nasty' ringing in their ears might be cursing their diplomats for having let him in.
But for Cowell, now nursing a personal fortune of US$35 million and a contract that will keep the dollars flowing until 2011, and Fox TV, which enjoyed record viewing figures of 35.5 million on the night, it was a close call and a blessed relief.
American Idol is now the nation's greatest television phenomenon and Cowell is one of the hottest properties in the business. Even the show's executives admit to being overwhelmed by the enthusiasm with which viewers - who numbered just 9.9 million when Idol first came to America in June 2002 - keep coming back for more.
'It's become that much a part of the fibre of the American culture. There's television hits - and then there's this thing,' Fox's reality programming chief, Mike Darnell, told reporters after Tuesday's season premiere.