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Earlier this fall, Nigel Lythgoe announced that he would no longer be serving as the executive producer for American Idol.
Now, it seems he has issued a public warning for Idol judge, Simon Cowell, in light of some of the changes that are taking place on the show. Recently, it was revealed that Idol would be adding a fourth judge, Kara DioGuardi. Lythgoe doesn’t agree with this decision: "I don’t like fourth judges," Lythgoe said. "I think once you’ve been told ‘You suck,’ you don’t need to be told another three times…. I think she’s a lovely lady, and I think she’s relevant and up to date, but, personally, I would never have done it."
Ummm… my first thought was that I see fourth judges all the time on Lythgoe’s other show, So You Think You Can Dance. He appeared to realize that people would think of that too since he added: "We’ve had lots of fourth judges, as guests, which was OK for me because they would be in one show and then you get rid of them the next."
I have to say that there are four judges on both Australian Idol and Canadian Idol (maybe even more of the spinoffs around the world?) and it has worked just fine.
Lythgoe also had some words of warning for Simon regarding his role on the show (since Nigel has left, he’s become more active in the behind-the-scenes work). Here’s what was said: "Simon has got a very good sense and awareness about him but he’s never produced anything on television. As an executive producer, he can be an adviser and I think that’s fair enough because he knows what he’s doing. But at the end of the day, you have to leave it for the producers to produce, because if you’re in it, you’re seeing it from a completely different perspective and he’s going to need to realize that. Sometimes you can’t see the woods through the trees and you tend to lose the most important thing, which is so often forgotten: common sense."
Ouch! What do you think? Will the show suffer if Simon takes a more active role in the production?
image © 2008 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: FOX