When it was originally being shopped around, American Idol was rejected by all four major American television networks. In fact, it only got picked up by Fox because Rupert Murdoch's daughter had seen the British version and urged her father to pick up the show.
Mr. Murdoch allegedly had to push his staff to do something with the show after he purchased it because they were extremely unenthusiastic about it. That's why the first season aired during the summer- so that the network could quickly drop the show if it failed.
