Lythgoe Says American Idol More Diverse Without Simon Cowell

While JLo may have had her “Randy who?” moment. It’s American Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe’s turn with “Simon who?”

Lythgoe told US that not only has Simon’s exit allowed for a more diverse crowd of American Idol hopefuls, but the emotional level of the show has been raised. Yikes. That’s pretty rough on ol’ Simon.

“We’ve had some incredible country voices — in truth, Simon would have gotten rid of them straight-away because he wasn’t a country fan,” Lythgoe told Us. “This season we have a 16-year-old kid with an incredible voice and a jazz kid who does this fabulous scat-singing. Again, we wouldn’t have had him on the show because Simon would have said, ‘He’s not an American Idol! Get rid of him!’ … What you are definitely going to get this season is an American voice and American music.”

With Cowell gone, “The energy in the audition rooms is totally different,” Lythgoe told Us. “You aren’t tired at the end of the day, even though we are seeing twice as many kids as we did in the past. We are enjoying it; we are laughing.”

Nigel goes on with more details on how each judge is handling their roles. He cites Steven Tyler for his kind way of letting down singers, Lopez is giving strong direction, but it’s Randy who’s really stepping up his game from past seasons. Maybe Jennifer will have a little competition for the lead after all.

Do you think American Idol can pull through without Simon Cowell?

Source: MSNBC

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