Coming later this year to Yahoo!, Simon Cowell will host “Ultimate DJ,” a reality-TV style DJ competition to crown the next heavyweight in dance music. Announcing the show, Cowell said, “Electronic music is one of the most important genres around the world and we want to respect what’s happening around the world.”

Contestants will compete for a recording contract from Sony and a headlining spot at a major music festival, with live voting held through Yahoo’s popular blogging service, Tumblr. 

The show has been in production for a number of years, as Cowell sought a willing network and panel of judges. So far only Steve Aoki has been announced as a judge, but we do know that Fatboy Slim was approached last July, as he promptly told Cowell to “F**k off.”

“That’s the good thing about dance music; it grows organically through drunk people late at night coming up with stupid ideas. It’s not something that can be scripted or transported into a TV studio,” said Fatboy Slim in an interview with Digital Spy.

Fatboy Slim continued, saying “I get offered loads of TV shows and they’re like, ‘Can you perform for five minutes?’ But DJ-ing takes two hours and an audience. It’s not like you can go out there and sing your latest song. Because of that, it will always remain slightly outside the mainstream… At the end of the day, it’s about taking a big bunch of high people and trying to get them higher, which you can’t do on TV.”

Thank you, Fatboy Slim, for so eloquently stating the obvious. Reality TV competitions are a mockery of the artistry of music, and we’re presuming that electronic music fans have a bit more self-respect than to tune into “Ultimate DJ.”