Nigel Lythgoe Examines American Idol's Flaws
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
