Jennifer Lopez Once Outbid Ex-Boyfriend Diddy for Fuse
Jennifer Lopez and her former boyfriend Diddy both went head to head for this television network. And although Diddy boasts a higher net worth, Lopez managed to walk away with the channel.
Why Jennifer Lopez wanted to purchase Fuse TV
Similar to MTV, Fuse was a channel dedicated to broadcasting music videos. But Lopez and her company, NuvoTV, felt that more could’ve been done with the channel. They also hoped to expand their own network. Fuse wasn’t at its healthiest at the time Lopez purchased the network in 2014. She figured both Fuse and her channel could help each other.
“Music is my first love so the acquisition of Fuse is near and dear to my heart,” Lopez said in a statement according to The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s exciting that between Nuvo TV and Fuse we’ll have the ability to deliver a broad array of terrific content both from a Latino perspective and across multiple genres, including music, to a broader audience. The acquisition of Fuse means we now own two wonderful assets. It’s a phenomenal time for our company and we look forward to growing both networks in the years ahead.”
But before Lopez landed Fuse, the Bad Boys producer also showed interest in the company. According to the Los Angeles Times, Diddy put in a $200 million bid for the channel. Meanwhile, Lopez purchased the channel for $226 million.
Lopez’s longtime manager at the time, Benny Medina, didn’t think it was a coincidence that the two former lovers competed for Fuse. She felt that the brief rivalry was a testament to how similar the pair were.
“In many ways, Jennifer and Sean are cut from the same cloth,” Medina said. “They’re both passionate artists of the same generation who think on a grand and global scale. They were two superstars seeking to build their brand, who happened to be Jennifer and Puffy.”
Diddy started a rival network after losing Fuse
Diddy’s ambitions didn’t end after he lost the bid to the Hustlers star. Instead, the music mogul was already in the midst of building something new. He founded Revolt TV in 2013, which was supposed to give more of a platform to lesser-known artists with great talent.
“There are a lot of semi-artists with wack music that have snuck in the last decade,” Diddy said in an interview with Ad Age. “We are looking to push artists to give the most of themselves. There’s a time for one-hit wonders. What makes us different is curation and our track record; we know how to pick them.”
Diddy also hoped that Revolt could be the new headquarters and destination for music.
“Currently, music doesn’t have one central headquarters,” he added. “We don’t have our ESPN of music, our CNN of music, our Golf Channel of music. We want to be a home for artists who are now homeless.”
According to National Post, Diddy’s Revolt TV would also be designed to delve deeper into the artist as well as their music.
“I want to know, who is Taylor Swift? Why is Miley Cyrus twerking? Why did Jay-Z and Justin Timberlake go on tour? Why did Kanye West call his daughter ‘North’? The industry of music is just as important, or more important, as the industry of sports,” Diddy said. “Sports are covered in a serious manner and we want to follow in those footsteps.”
How Diddy reacted to Jennifer Lopez bidding against him
In an interview with Sway’s Universe, Lopez delved a bit further into the deal that landed her Fuse. Going into her hopes and dreams for the network, she also shared that her ex-boyfriend held no grudges against her for the purchase. Although, she was a bit thrown when she realized Diddy was bidding against her in the first place.
“He did e-mail me and said congratulations. I didn’t know he was in the bidding until very close to the end. I had no idea that they were doing that. And I was kind of like, ‘Why is he doing that?’ All of a sudden it was just like now he’s just my friend,” Lopez said. “But at the end of the day, we got it. And I was very excited.”
