American Idol's Jimmy Iovine on results night
Last night’s American Idol debuted a new time-killer feature for results night: resident mentor and Interscope guru Jimmy Iovine’s reactions to Wednesday night’s performances by the Top 6. Awkwardly staged and set up, Jimmy’s thoughts on the weaknesses of the remaining Idol contestants were nonetheless spot-on and desperately needed after weeks of tepid-at-best comments coming from the judging panel. Check out these truth bombs Jimmy dropped on each of the contestants:
Haley: “As an artist, Haley’s problem is she doesn’t really know who she is yet. My prediction is the audience is getting wind of that.”
Scotty: “He has a subtlety that’s magnificent, but I’m always worried subtleties in this particular environment can get lost. And that’s where Scotty’s in jeopardy.”
Lauren: “Lauren only hears the negative in the critique. She has to hear that Jennifer was proud that she went for it, and it was a great thing, not that she didn’t hit the note.”
Casey: “When I watched Casey last night, I was disappointed, because he felt that he had to growl. Casey’s got to realize that the family dog does vote not on this show.”
James: “When James sings heavy metal sometimes, they’re not believable. When he sings a melody with a great song, with a rock feel, he’s much more believable to me.”
Jacob: “Our studio is right next door to Dancing With the Stars, and when I saw Jacob hit the stage, I said, ‘Oh, he went in the wrong dressing room.’”
Admit it: Many of you have been thinking exactly the same thing about these kids over the course of the season — something we all used to say about Simon Cowell’s critiques when he was at the top of his game. And Haley’s bleeped reaction aside, many of the contestants themselves seemed to agree with Jimmy’s candid assessments. So is Jimmy our new Simon? Well, not quite — even when he was at his most annoyed, Simon never quite looked like he had just swallowed the most sour lemon in the history of sour lemons, and Simon’s barbs also benefited from frequently being laugh-out-loud funny. Still, I hope the show continues this feature into the final weeks of the show; somebody has to be the blunt truth-teller on this show, and it might as well be Jimmy.
Do you agree? Is Jimmy the next Simon?
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