Simon Cowell Interview, Part I

Simon Cowell was kind enough to do a round-table interview with a bunch of journalists and bloggers by phone yesterday. He was funny and delightful, I really enjoyed it. I've got the first part of the interview edited and formatted for you guys today.

Idol has had a fourth judge before; Angie Martinez didn’t quite work out.  I was wondering: what’s the dynamic this time and what does make it work this time?
Well look, first of all, Eric, I have no idea whether this is going to work or not.  I haven’t seen the show back yet.  It’s only when I watch the show back whether we actually know if this has been a good idea or a bad idea. The thing I do support is at least trying new things.  Sometimes it works and as you said before, sometimes it doesn’t work.  That’s the delicious thrill of making reality television – you genuinely don’t know.

Which of Kara’s qualities as a judge struck you immediately?
Well, she has experience.  She’s written hit songs.  She has an opinion, which is very, very important.  She talks a lot. I think she’s probably well qualified.

Following up on the Kara question, I’m just wondering, given that she’s worked with Idol contestants in the past, either writing songs or singing backup, do you think that helps or hinders her as a judge, having that previous experience with former Idol contestants?
That’s a good question.  I haven’t even thought about that.  I’d think it’s probably a good thing.  At least she knows what the end process is and what you have to do to turn somebody into a recording artist.  She’s obviously not snobby about this kind of music, which some people can be, with this kind of process.  At least she’s not going to look down on the process, which is a good thing.

What’s your take on the other changes, like bringing back the wild card and focusing less on the train wreck auditions?
I think the wild card is a good idea.  I wasn’t crazy about the process we went through the last couple of years where we were given a small group of contestants who you actually got bored with once you hit about show five of the live shows.  This way this is a bit more jeopardy and hopefully a bit more fun in the middle stages.

Now, you’ve said already that you think a guy will win, and America hasn’t narrowed it down yet.  Is that because the male talent pool is so overwhelming or do you have someone specific in mind?
Not specific.  When you do the Hollywood week, which we did about a month ago, you get to see all the contestants for a second time.  My memory of that was that the guys overall – maybe five or six of them – were just stronger and they stood out more than the girls.  I’ve said this in the past:  I’ve been wrong.  Somebody like a Kelly Clarkson can emerge in the middle stages, which you’re not expecting.  Still, anything can happen.

You mentioned earlier that part of the problem with the format in recent years was that you guys and audiences were getting bored with the contestants after too many weeks in the pre-top 12 days.  What is your role in the early selection process of preventing that from occurring, and what did you do this year to make sure that you weren’t going to get bored with these people?
Well, we tried to be as broad and as open minded as possible so that we don’t end up with 12 people from the Stepford Wives.  I think it’s important that we have all types of singers, all types of people because I have to say, I think personality is as important as talent on a show like this.  I think it’s important for the show.  What you hope you end up with is somebody like Fantasia, who’s not only extremely talented, she’s an incredible person, has a great vibe and makes the show interesting.  We tried, where we can with what we had, just to get a more interesting group of people. 

There’s been a lot of publicity, not only surrounding the premier of the new season, but also the recent tragedy involving a former contestant.  Simon, what is your reaction to Paula’s claims that Idol producers let her alleged stalker audition for the show knowing that Paula was terrified of her?
Well look, first of all, I want to say one thing, Brooke, because we’re talking about a tragedy here.  I really don’t like referring to this person as a “stalker” because I don’t think that we can talk like that about somebody, so let’s refer to her as what I did, which was a fan.  What happened was awful.

My regret in all of this is that we didn’t know how troubled this person was.  If I could have gone back in time and known what she was going through, I wish that we could have spent time trying to help her, but we genuinely didn’t know.  I want to say this:  The process on how we select on American Idol is they’re open auditions.  We don’t research people.  It’s everyone turns up because they want to be on the show.  I would assume everyone who auditions for American Idol knows, also, what it’s like to audition, i.e. if you’re not very good, you’re going to get criticized.  Often, if I have the time, we will go and talk to the contestants beforehand, before they even audition, and say to them beforehand, “Look – welcome to American Idol.  If any of you don’t like criticism, please don’t come into the audition room,” and nobody’s ever left. 

On behalf of the producers, I want to say this:  These guys have the utmost integrity as human beings.  We wouldn’t work for them if they were the kind of people who would deliberately do something like that.  We’ve taken them on their word that they didn’t know that this person was as troubled as she was.  We have had fans come into the show before.  Talking about the producers in the way that they’ve been portrayed is unfair.  It was their decision two years ago to do Idol Gives Back, which raised $120 million for people.  These aren’t bad people.  All they want to do is make a successful show. I spoke to them after the incident.  They were absolutely horrified.  I can’t point fingers at them and say that they knew everything about this person, because I genuinely don’t think that was the case.