By Lisa de Moraes
Sunday, January 21, 2007
TV critics suddenly woke up, discovered "American Idol" judges are tough on lousy auditions in early episodes and demanded answers from "Idol" judges and Fox entertainment chief Peter Liguori at Winter TV Press Tour 2007.
Actually they've known it all along. They're just knicker-knotted about it now because Rosie O'Donnell sermonized about it on "The View" earlier in the week, when "Idol" returned for its sixth season. In much the same way reporters jumped all over the The Donald Trump-Rosie O'Donnell kerfuffle a couple of weeks back, after Rosie sermonized about Trump and the Miss USA/Miss Universe pageant Trump owns.
Yes, O'Donnell is the national press's new assignment editor.
O'Donnell and, therefore, critics were particularly exercised about last Wednesday's telecast, featuring bad auditions of two men, Kenneth Briggs and Jonathan Jayne.
Besides being a very bad singer, Briggs has enormous eyes, similar to those of an animal called a bush baby, which judge Simon Cowell noted during Briggs's audition.
Jayne, meanwhile, appeared to be mentally challenged and, according to an online biography from a private school he attended in Seattle, he participated in the Special Olympics, the New York Times reported.
"I take your point -- it's a singing competition and why should I call someone a bush baby," Simon Cowell told critics, when asked about the decision to broadcast those two auditions.
"We've never tried to censor this show," he said, admitting there are times when "I've watched it back and said, 'I wish I hadn't said that' and 'why did they put that in the show?' But it's something we all sign up for," Cowell added that he prefers the idea that the program "show the warts as well as the good things."
Cowell said the judges did not know Jayne had participated in the Special Olympics but wondered why someone who had should be disqualified from the opportunity to audition for "American Idol" if they want to, saying it "smacks of censorship."
"I'm not saying it's particularly pleasant to watch . . . I don't think we should be censored on the type of people" who audition and make it to air, Cowell said. "What we're trying to do is be representative."
Judge Paula Abdul noted that both men appeared on Jimmy Kimmel's ABC late-night show to discuss their "Idol" experience and that it "seemed like they were thrilled to death."
Exec producer Ken Warwick noted that when hideously bad William Hung auditioned for "Idol" in 2004 "we got a lot of criticism."
Hung got cut right away but went on to sign a recording contract.
"Peter, the comments -- harsh comments from the judges on 'Idol' -- do you take these seriously?" one critic asked Liguori during his Q&A session.
"I think it's part of what makes 'American Idol' 'American Idol,' " Liguori said.
"Let's face it, this show's been on the air for six years and the judges have been critical for six years. Hundreds of thousands of auditions have occurred. People know what the show is about."
"You'd never tell the judges to back off?" another critic said, as if he meant it to sting.
"I think the judges know what makes the show tick," he said. "This season is just a continuation of what's been a very successful formula."
Speaking of successful formulas, Liguori got great results playing possum in response to all questions about that O.J. Simpson interview special Fox had scheduled to coincide with the release of Simpson's book, "If I Did It," in which he detailed how he would have whacked his ex-wife.
"I don't mean to frustrate you with this answer, but it's been published that there is pending and threatened litigation against the corporation, and our lawyers have asked me to not comment about O.J. I apologize for that. I understand where the question's coming from," Liguori said.
BTW, whenever a network suit says, "I don't mean to frustrate you with this answer," he means to frustrate you with his answer.
Anyway, it worked. Only one other critic, in a room of more than 100, took a halfhearted stab at O.J., asking Liguori if advertisers had embraced the TV special.
"Unfortunately, again, I do apologize. I can't answer any O.J. questions. I hope you appreciate the situation we all find ourselves in here," Liguori said.
Of course, the only way to handle a possum is to grab it by the tail and yank up sharply, but Liguori remained firmly planted in his chair throughout the Q&A.
Rupert Murdoch, CEO of Fox parent News Corp., scrubbed the TV show and the book at the eleventh hour, saying he'd discovered it was "an ill-considered project." He discovered it after Fox stations started saying they wouldn't air it and booksellers started saying they wouldn't sell it, or would donate all profits to charity, presumably to ease their sense of corporate shame.
Not long after that, Murdoch sacked Judith Regan, who had headed publication of the book.
Liguori did, however, have a humdinger of an explanation for the latest iteration of Abdul's weird behavior during recent televised interviews promoting the show.
He said he had not seen them, saying his "guys" who were at the interviews told him that she'd just finished talking with about 30 different TV stations over about three-plus hours.
"We had audio problems where she was actually answering questions from a number of our affiliates, and after that amount of time and questions coming from all angles I would probably be a little slap-happy at that point."
Abdul told exactly the same story during the "Idol" Q&A. But she added that when she saw the resulting bizarro interviews, which made their way to YouTube, her reaction was "Oh, my God."
"How does it make you feel when people are in print and on blogs writing you are drunk or drugged?" one critic wondered.
"It's really fun," she answered facetiously. "You know what, I've been in this business 20 years; I've never had to weather the storm" like she has since she's been in "Idol."
"It's the show -- it's huge," she said, admitting her entire previous career as a singer, dancer and choreographer is "almost insignificant because I'm a judge on the world's biggest show.
"I love it, but it's often daunting. Yeah, sometimes it is very frustrating. Like this!"
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