{"id":162120,"date":"2025-12-01T09:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T09:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/162120\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T09:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T09:41:07","slug":"simon-cowell-not-proud-of-insulting-american-idol-contestants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/162120\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Cowell “Not Proud” Of Insulting ‘American Idol’ Contestants"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSimon Cowell<\/a> has apologized to early years American Idol<\/a> contestants for \u201cbeing a dick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe music impresario and talent show judge said he was \u201cnot proud\u201d of the way he insulted competitors on the series, which helped establish him as a household name when it launched on Fox in 2002.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn an interview with The New York Times, Cowell said his persona softened on American Idol over time because he recognized that he had crossed a line. <\/p>\n

\n\tIn the early years, Cowell said he was focused on finding talent and feared the show would be canceled if they failed. This led to a bluntness in his approach that he thinks was further heightened in the edit. <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhen I used to do auditions, someone would come in and they can\u2019t sing, we would say after 10 seconds, \u2018You can\u2019t sing,\u2019 not, \u2018You\u2019re going to be brilliant,\u2019 and everything else,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo I was frustrated at the beginning, because I thought, if we don\u2019t find someone good at the end of these shows, they\u2019re not going to get recommissioned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLulu Garcia-Navarro, host of The New York Times show The Interview, pressed Cowell on what the line was between bluntness and humiliation. <\/p>\n

\n\tShe recounted YouTube compilations of Cowell insulting contestants, including commenting on their weight and telling them they\u2019d invented a new form of torture.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cDo we have to go through this?\u201d Cowell winced. \u201cI\u2019ve got to be honest with you. That\u2019s why I did change over time. I mean, I did realize I\u2019ve probably gone too far.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continued: \u201cI didn\u2019t particularly like, I still don\u2019t like, audition days because they\u2019re long and boring. I would get fed up. And of course, you know, out of 100 nice comments, what are they going to use? They\u2019re always going to use. You know, me being in a bad mood. I got that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat can I say? I\u2019m sorry,\u201d Cowell added. Asked what he was apologizing for, he said: \u201cJust being a dick \u2026 I\u2019m not proud of it. Let\u2019s put it that way. I never look at this stuff online or anything. You know, I\u2019m not someone who particularly wants to see myself on camera.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSo when I hear about these clips, I\u2019m like, \u2018Oh God.\u2019 But then again, the upside is, I suppose, with these clips, is that it made the shows really popular worldwide.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tCowell has expressed regret about his American Idol judging in the past. In 2012, Cowell said he was \u201cappalled\u201d at his treatment of contestants, and a year earlier admitted he \u201ccrossed the line,\u201d especially when dealing with more vulnerable or \u201cfragile\u201d participants. <\/p>\n

\n\tCowell was speaking to The New York Times to promote his Netflix series Simon Cowell: The Next Act, which launches on December 10.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Simon Cowell has apologized to early years American Idol contestants for \u201cbeing a dick.\u201d The music impresario and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[22149,146,85,46,28395],"class_list":{"0":"post-162120","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-american-idol","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-simon-cowell"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}