Nigel Lythgoe Examines American Idol's Flaws
Nigel Lythgoe answers questions at 2007 Fox Summer TCA courtesy Fox
What was wrong with
American Idol last season?
Nigel Lythgoe, president of
Idol's production company 19 Television, thinks it was too much
Peter Noone and not enough
Melinda Doolittle. In other words, "We didn't really show the personalities of the people," he told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour on Sunday. "We were so engrossed with the mentors who were particularly good last season, and not really on the Melindas. And we didn't know them as much as we knew the
Kellie Picklers from the season before."
What happened on
Idol led Lythgoe to make adjustments to this summer's
So You Think You Can Dance. "We've really gone out of our way to focus on the competitors' thoughts, their feelings, their emotions," he said, "so that we're all attached to them a little more than if they were just dance competitors."
- Reporting by Stephen Battaglio
