Apparently Simon's comments at the end of the show were not enough as "Idol" was forced to go into damage control mode today...
On Ryan Seacrest's radio show this morning, Simon said he was talking to Paula, asking her what Chris meant by singing nasally on purpose, so he didn't even hear what Chris had said about the tragedy. His eyes rolled "given what [he] was saying to Paula." Simon was clearly angry about the controversy, telling Ryan, "I did want to clear this one up because, you know, this is a very very sensitive subject. The irony is that we did want to try and set the right tone on the show. And then something like this happens, and it just starts fanning the flames," Cowell said. "And people need to understand, there are families involved. It's not right."
Executive Producer Nigel Lythgoe also came to Simon's defense, saying "it is disheartening that a quick camera cutaway could have been misinterpreted."
FOX said it had received "few complaints" about Simon and the Blacksburg, VA (where Virginia Tech is located) affiliate had received no complaints...
By the way, the show's opening was Ryan's idea since he felt they needed to say something given how many people watch the show.
Showing posts with label Simon Cowell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Simon Cowell. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Did Chris Exploit a Tragedy?
Since Chris is from Virginia and he seemed incredibly sincere, I didn’t give it any thought when he extended his thoughts and prayers to Virginia Tech. But there are some this morning who are questioning the timing of his comments…
This from Michael Slezak at “Entertainment Weekly”: "Even more troubling, though, was Chris' abrupt change of subject from mouthing off to Simon to extending his thoughts and prayers to the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings. Mind you, I'm not saying the Virginia resident's remarks weren't sincere, but the timing felt way off. By sniping at Simon first, realizing he was in a losing battle, then turning the subject to an unspeakable national tragedy, Chris created the season’s most uncomfortable moment.”
Many of the posters to the “EW” site are jumping on Slezak's bandwagon and questioning if Chris used the comments to make up for his lame “nasally’s a form of singing” argument with Simon. I have to agree that if Chris wanted to send out sincere wishes to his home state—and I believe he did—then he should have kept his mouth shut about the nasally singing…
Because now we have two sides—the people who thought Chris was exploiting a national tragedy and didn’t vote for him because of it and the people who thought Chris’ performance may have been affected by the week’s events and voted for him because of it. It could make an interesting evening for Chris…
For me, it was actually Simon’s comments in the middle of his critique of Blake that I thought were badly timed, but “EW” offers up an explanation for that as well. Apparently the cameras caught Simon rolling his eyes at Chris and Slezak theorizes that Simon may have made his comments so he did not appear to be unsympathetic—since he is (I didn’t say his comments were insincere, I just said they were strangely timed.). If Simon did roll his eyes, it was clearly because he was exasperated with Chris thinking that nasally singing was a good thing…
By the way, the Top 7 results show is usually when Ryan unveils his two groups of three trick, where he creates two groups of three and a seventh contestant, who is safe, has to pick which group is the top group. A LaKisha-Chris-Sanjaya bottom three would be interesting…
I’m sticking with my LaKisha prediction, but it’s looking more and more like this could be the night we say goodbye to Sanjaya—especially now that even Jim is losing faith in him…
Since the first half-hour is nothing but filler, I’ll be blogging tonight beginning at 9:30, so I hope you’ll join me then…
This from Michael Slezak at “Entertainment Weekly”: "Even more troubling, though, was Chris' abrupt change of subject from mouthing off to Simon to extending his thoughts and prayers to the victims of the Virginia Tech shootings. Mind you, I'm not saying the Virginia resident's remarks weren't sincere, but the timing felt way off. By sniping at Simon first, realizing he was in a losing battle, then turning the subject to an unspeakable national tragedy, Chris created the season’s most uncomfortable moment.”
Many of the posters to the “EW” site are jumping on Slezak's bandwagon and questioning if Chris used the comments to make up for his lame “nasally’s a form of singing” argument with Simon. I have to agree that if Chris wanted to send out sincere wishes to his home state—and I believe he did—then he should have kept his mouth shut about the nasally singing…
Because now we have two sides—the people who thought Chris was exploiting a national tragedy and didn’t vote for him because of it and the people who thought Chris’ performance may have been affected by the week’s events and voted for him because of it. It could make an interesting evening for Chris…
For me, it was actually Simon’s comments in the middle of his critique of Blake that I thought were badly timed, but “EW” offers up an explanation for that as well. Apparently the cameras caught Simon rolling his eyes at Chris and Slezak theorizes that Simon may have made his comments so he did not appear to be unsympathetic—since he is (I didn’t say his comments were insincere, I just said they were strangely timed.). If Simon did roll his eyes, it was clearly because he was exasperated with Chris thinking that nasally singing was a good thing…
By the way, the Top 7 results show is usually when Ryan unveils his two groups of three trick, where he creates two groups of three and a seventh contestant, who is safe, has to pick which group is the top group. A LaKisha-Chris-Sanjaya bottom three would be interesting…
I’m sticking with my LaKisha prediction, but it’s looking more and more like this could be the night we say goodbye to Sanjaya—especially now that even Jim is losing faith in him…
Since the first half-hour is nothing but filler, I’ll be blogging tonight beginning at 9:30, so I hope you’ll join me then…
Saturday, March 17, 2007
Simon on "60 Minutes"
You’ve probably heard that Simon Cowell said he’s bigger than Bruce Springstein (actually he said he was worth more to his record label than Springstein)…
Now he’s saying he was offered $100,000 to judge a couple’s sex life…
You can hear what else he has to say this Sunday on “60 Minutes.”
“60 Minutes” airs Sunday, March 18th at 7 p.m. (barring any NCAA overrun) on CBS…
Now he’s saying he was offered $100,000 to judge a couple’s sex life…
You can hear what else he has to say this Sunday on “60 Minutes.”
“60 Minutes” airs Sunday, March 18th at 7 p.m. (barring any NCAA overrun) on CBS…
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
Simon Mouths Off
“American Idol” kicked off the Museum of TV and Radio’s William S. Paley Festival last week. The Festival features airings of popular shows, followed by panel discussions with cast and crew.
The “Idol” panel consisted of Executive Producer Ken Warwick, FOX reality guru Mike Darnell, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest, but as usual it was Simon Cowell getting all of the attention as he unloaded about Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Hicks and contestants crying…
Thanks to Derek for the heads-up on this one…
Simon took the opportunity to confirm what we already knew—that he doesn’t like Taylor. “They [Paula and Randy] loved him. I couldn’t stand him. I didn’t get it.” Simon also admitted that just because someone wins the show doesn’t mean they will sell a lot of records. “At the end of the day you have to find a bona fide recording artist.”
The panel took place just after Thursday’s results show when most of the contestants wound up in tears. Simon seemed to think they were crocodile tears. “My theory is why would you cry if one of your competitors is kicked off? Be delighted. They know the cameras are on. Trust me.”
Simon also took exception with Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson for saying that “Idol” was a “stepping stone” for her. Simon said, “It was her big opportunity to become noticed and she got noticed and she got ‘Dreamgirls.’” Without naming names, Simon said that other past contestants “deliberately turn against the show that made them successful. The reason [they] come on the show is because all the doors had been slammed in their face.”
It’s a rare occasion when I disagree with Simon, but I do when it comes to Jennifer. Here’s what she had to say backstage at the Academy Awards: “Thank God there is such a thing as ‘Idol.’ There’s many other talents that came before that didn’t have a platform to sing, but they allowed us that platform and for that we can say thank you.”
Sorry, Simon. That doesn’t sound like an “Idol” diss to me…
However, it’s that brutal honesty that we’ve come to love about the show, as Warwick admitted during the panel. “You never had a show where someone would say, ‘You suck.’ That makes all the difference.”
The “Idol” panel consisted of Executive Producer Ken Warwick, FOX reality guru Mike Darnell, Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Ryan Seacrest, but as usual it was Simon Cowell getting all of the attention as he unloaded about Jennifer Hudson, Taylor Hicks and contestants crying…
Thanks to Derek for the heads-up on this one…
Simon took the opportunity to confirm what we already knew—that he doesn’t like Taylor. “They [Paula and Randy] loved him. I couldn’t stand him. I didn’t get it.” Simon also admitted that just because someone wins the show doesn’t mean they will sell a lot of records. “At the end of the day you have to find a bona fide recording artist.”
The panel took place just after Thursday’s results show when most of the contestants wound up in tears. Simon seemed to think they were crocodile tears. “My theory is why would you cry if one of your competitors is kicked off? Be delighted. They know the cameras are on. Trust me.”
Simon also took exception with Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson for saying that “Idol” was a “stepping stone” for her. Simon said, “It was her big opportunity to become noticed and she got noticed and she got ‘Dreamgirls.’” Without naming names, Simon said that other past contestants “deliberately turn against the show that made them successful. The reason [they] come on the show is because all the doors had been slammed in their face.”
It’s a rare occasion when I disagree with Simon, but I do when it comes to Jennifer. Here’s what she had to say backstage at the Academy Awards: “Thank God there is such a thing as ‘Idol.’ There’s many other talents that came before that didn’t have a platform to sing, but they allowed us that platform and for that we can say thank you.”
Sorry, Simon. That doesn’t sound like an “Idol” diss to me…
However, it’s that brutal honesty that we’ve come to love about the show, as Warwick admitted during the panel. “You never had a show where someone would say, ‘You suck.’ That makes all the difference.”
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