By Karen Moul

As American Idol enters its two-night season finale, producer Nigel Lythgoe made time to speak with a few journalists and shared his thoughts on the final showdown between Jessica Sanchez and and Phillip Phillips.

“First and foremost,” Lythgoe offered, “they’re both very quiet. I don’t know if it’s age or whatever, but in fact the final four were very quiet, gentle people and not the sort of divas that you would expect.

“They’ll probably turn into that in a few years, but at this moment in time they’re just wonderful people, they’ve got their feet firmly on the floor, and they’re very focused on winning."

So what does Lythgoe think Jessica and Phillip each need to do to win?

“You’ve got to go out there and you’ve got to do something that grabs that audience and literally makes them stand up, pick up a telephone at home, and vote. That’s probably going to have to be something that puts a smile on your face, gets you going, ‘Oh, I remember that.’

“I think Phil,” he continued, “needs to find a song that people know because he does find unusual songs. His Bob Seger rendition I thought the other night was the best song, and I would have thought that that endeared him to a lot of young girls out there and probably their mothers too.

“Jessica,” on the other hand, “needs a song that’s going to have a magic moment in it, that she hits that note, that she grabs us.

“She’s got this magnetic voice when she’s vulnerable like she was on ‘I Will Always Love You.’ So she needs to find that.”

FOX Conference Call
American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance
Nigel Lythgoe
 
May 18, 2012

QUESTION: Nigel, what would be really helpful is if you could just give us brief thumbnail sketches of what you find interesting about these two finalists, both as people and as singers. What do you find interesting about them?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: First and foremost is they’re both very quiet. I don’t know if it’s age or whatever, but in fact the final four were very quiet, gentle people and not the sort of divas that you would expect. They’ll probably turn into that in a few years, but at this moment in time they’re just wonderful people, they’ve got their feet firmly on the floor, and they’re very focused on winning.

Normally you get a little bit of reticence, do you want to win? Well, it doesn’t matter because everyone’s a winner, one of those lines, but they want to win, they actually want to win. And I think you saw for yourself with the final four that they are so diverse in their styles and with their voices this year, that you can make decisions. I think it’s easy to make decisions, I want this person to win this year, you know?

QUESTION: How did your Idol judges do this season, and do you have people in mind if you need replacements?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: I do not have people in mind. I only do that when I’m forced into it. I’m very happy with our judges.

I do think that they speak from the heart, they speak with intelligence, they speak obviously with insight, and when they don’t or if they screw up I’ve got Jimmy Iovine on the sidelines ready to castigate them, and I like that position.

A lot of people have suggested that Jimmy comes on as a judge. I would hate that. That wouldn’t allow me to ask somebody what they think about the judges.

QUESTION: You’ve done very strongly this year with Idol but it is down more than 20% in viewers and in young adults. Why do you think that’s the case, and do you have any concerns about that?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: Of course I’ve concerns about it. It would be very nice to remain at the top for the next 20 years. We’ve been at the top for 11 years. We’ve got to go somewhere, and the only place we can go is either stay there or go down. I still can’t believe that we’re still number one after 11 years. We packed for three weeks when we came to America, and here I am 11 years, 11 seasons later saying isn’t it great to be number one.

You know very well with the landscape as it is now it’s never been like this before, and we’ve got The X Factor on, we’ve got The Voice on, we’ve got various other people coming on with singing shows, and the public does get bored with singing shows and unless you produce the talent, like I believe we’ve done this year, we’ll go down again next year.

QUESTION: Okay, so it’s a lot about the glut of just the genre.

NIGEL LYTHGOE: The landscape, you know very well we’ve got two brand new programs and a tired audience.

QUESTION: Can you confirm reports that Jennifer Lopez won’t be returning as a judge?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: I don’t believe that’s true.

QUESTION: What would that mean to the show if she did leave?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: It would mean a great deal to the show. I’ve said in the past that we’ve got the world’s most beautiful judge, somebody who speaks from her heart, somebody who I trust their integrity, and it would mean starting all over again with another judge and getting them up to speed.

It’s not easy. It’s not easy criticizing people, and doing it in a manner that isn’t just chopping their legs from underneath them, but hopefully coaching them. A lot of people don’t understand that. A lot of people just think you’re up there to knock people and say, “Oh, you weren’t good this week.”

It isn’t like that at all. Why would you knock people who are brilliantly talented? You need to nurture them, and that’s what she does.

QUESTION: There has been talk about possibly changing some aspects of Idol. Can you speak to that a little bit?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: I can’t at this moment in time. As you’re fully aware, we’ve got three hours of live television next week and a big finale, and that’s the only thing that I’m interested in at the moment. Every year we look at American Idol and do little tweaks and just mess it around a little bit, and I’m sure we’ll be doing that again next year.

SCIFI VISION: You’ve been involved in the pop idol sensation all over the world, mostly with the British and then the American shows. Do you find a difference in the audiences, what the U.S. audience wants to see on this show versus what the British audience likes to see?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: I must be honest and say we only did it for one year, or I only did it for one year in the U.K. But no, at the end of the day audiences all over the world, and it’s been successful all over the world, enjoy watching the American dream take place, because that’s what it is. It’s somebody wanting something to be taken out of being nothing into superstardom. That’s exactly what it is. And that happens anywhere in the world.

If the kid’s got talent with this show, it acts as a wonderful springboard to put you out there in front of the public. After that of course it’s up to the music you produce. But that happens all over the world and that’s what audiences want to see, that journey, everybody wants that dream of superstardom.

QUESTION: I know that you said on Twitter that Joshua had been your favorite.

NIGEL LYTHGOE: Oh, yes.

QUESTION: He was actually mine too. Any thoughts on why he didn’t make it into the finale?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: He didn’t get enough votes. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter if I think he’s the best, if you think he’s the best, if not enough people do then he doesn’t get the votes.

It never worries me. I get a lot of these tweets saying, “Colton was sent home. I’m never watching American Idol again in my life.” It’s sad, because at the end of the day it’s just like watching a soccer team or your football team and you’re just hoping that they’re going to win, and if they don’t win, tough, come back next season.

At least with this I truly believe that both Colton, actually, and Joshua are going to have good careers. Joshua, to be in a stadium with him is going to be incredible. This guy just exudes personality. He’s too big almost for a television show. Put him on a stage and let him go, because he’s tremendous, and that’s why I like him, he’s just such a wonderful performer.

But voice-wise Jessica’s up there with him. In personality and obviously the way he attracts ladies, Phillip’s there.

So I’m thrilled for them all. I’ve said before and I mean it, these are the best three that I’ve ever seen on American Idol in one show, apart from the divas years ago that didn’t even make it to the top three.

QUESTION: I know that you’ve said that there is no definite word on Jennifer Lopez’s future on Idol, but my question is, how flexible is the job as an Idol judge for someone like Jennifer Lopez who is also hard at work releasing songs from her album and –

NIGEL LYTHGOE: Of course this is a major problem for any artist. We start the tour, I think we gave out dates last night, in June for next season. So then we go through that whole process which takes something like four months to do, and we’ve got to find dates that suit everybody with the judges, because it’s not just Jennifer, don’t forget Aerosmith’s going on tour, Randy Jackson’s got albums to produce, and Ryan Seacrest’s ruling the world at the moment.

So it’s got to fit everybody and it’s difficult. And you’ve got to start making decisions, do I want to carry on doing this, do I want to go off and make movies. She’s had a wonderful resurgence with being the most beautiful woman in the world, two number one records, and she’s doing brilliantly, and she’s going to have to balance everything up, as is Steven Tyler too. It’s not just Jennifer, don’t forget.

QUESTION: A lot of people really love Jimmy’s comments on the show –

NIGEL LYTHGOE: Yes, me too.

QUESTION: ... and part of his perspective is that he does get to watch the show after the fact and have the time to actually digest the performances. NIGEL LYTHGOE: Of course.

QUESTION: My question is, do you think that the contestants would benefit if they could get that same perspective from the judges as well?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: I’m not sure what you’re suggesting, that they sing a night before the judges watch everything and report on it the next day?

QUESTION: Or to give the judges, as opposed to immediately reacting to a performance a few seconds after it, to have time to actually digest it and maybe watch it once or twice again and then come up with a critique on it.

NIGEL LYTHGOE: Well, when you say critique, it’s not so much a critique, is it? What they’re doing in actual fact is saying exactly their feelings at that time. They’re not mentoring.

This is a total difference. And I’m not sure people understand the difference between mentoring and judging. Judging is making a judgment. End of story. I didn’t like that. I liked it. You were brilliant. You were wonderful. You were crap. Mentor is let’s look at this song, what does it mean, can you reach this note, can you get down to there, where’s the feeling behind that, what are you actually saying, what does this lyric say, what are you wearing, how’s your hair going to be? It’s a whole different ball game.

What Jimmy does is sit there and do all of that. I don’t want him going out there and judging like that when he’s been that intimate with the kids. The same with the judges, if they start trying to mentor in that sense I’ll lose them.

QUESTION: Shifting to So You Think You Can Dance, I’ve heard Jesse Tyler Ferguson is going to be on.

NIGEL LYTHGOE: Yes, Jesse spent a day with me in Los Angeles in the real auditions, where you’re looking at everybody, and we had a lot of fun, I must say.

QUESTION: And do you have your eye on some more celebrity judges this season?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: I have. I have. I’d love a lot of the ones that did it last year to come back. At the upfront, I must say I spoke to Zooey Deschanel, who’s an ardent fan, and hopefully we’ll get her on. I love the fact that people admire the show and love the show and I welcome them to give an opinion. We’ve got enough technicalities with me and Mary, so anybody else there is going to bring fun to the table.

QUESTION: As far as the change in format of So You Think You Can Dance with the elimination of results, can you speak to that a little bit?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: I can. And I can give you a little more information today as well. The first week of it is nobody will be going home of the top 18, 20, whatever we’re doing. We still haven’t decided yet, to be honest with you. And that will include a group number and all of their solos, so that’s the first week of the live shows.

The second week, and then America will vote, and there are going to be telephone numbers for each one of the dancers. And this year for the first time, and I don’t know why we haven’t done this before, and I only thought about it because of literally changing the format around that gave us a little more freedom to be creative, and we’re going to have a male winner and a female winner. And each dancer will have their own telephone number, so it’s going to be much easier to say who are your top boys, vote for them, who are your top girls, vote for them.

So we’ll be splitting couples up as well because the following week I can say when they dance again, after they’ve danced I’ll say to them, or Kat will say, “You are in the bottom three from last week, America put you in the bottom three.” Or it might just be, “Hey, Michael, you’re in the bottom three, your partner Bonnie isn’t. But you’re in the bottom three and you might have to dance for your life again.” And we’ll be saying we’re going to take into account the dance you did last week, the dance you’ve just done for us and America’s vote before we make our decision of who’s going home.

And then at the end of the show the judges will cut one male and one female from the people that America voted in the bottom three the week before. So in other words, America voting for its favorite dancers will always keep them away from the judges.

QUESTION: Do you think that the decision to cut the results show made you go back to the drawing board and perhaps in a strange way will reinvigorate –

NIGEL LYTHGOE: There’s no question about that. It’s going to reenergize the show because I still want to get a group number in there, I still want to get dancing stars in there, acts that are brilliant in what they do, and we’ve still got all of the competition to do, and if necessary, if we’re not sure which boy or which girl to send home we’ll get them to dance for their lives too.

So it’s really going to be hold your breath and hang on tight, because it’s going to be a very fast ride and pretty bumpy too, I would have thought. So it is without question, made us pull our socks up. And I totally understand it from Fox’s point of view because they also want to free up a night to experiment with new shows, so it all makes sense.

QUESTION: I was doing some reading and it says that you’re also a judge on So You Think You Can Dance, and I was just wondering which role do you think you prefer, the behind-the-scenes role, or the role where you get to be a judge?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: Dancing is my passion. I started as a dancer. I never dreamt that I’d come back to it later on in my life because it was a pleasure to give it up when I stopped, too. So I’m really passionate about that.

I don’t look on it as work. It gives me the opportunity of sitting there being inspired, being energized by these passionate kids that come out and open up their hearts and bleed on the stage in front of me. I absolutely love that, and that I could do for the rest of my life free, almost. Almost.

The other is a job. The other is an out and out hard working, get in here, write the medleys, talk to the judges, massage the kids, get them on the stage, it’s an out and out 7 days a week, 24 hour a day job. So I love it, but that’s the job and the other is a pleasure.

QUESTION: Regarding Jessica and Phillip, is there one thing for each that you would recommend them doing or think they need to do in order to win?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: That’s a tough one. I think, unlike the semifinal, Jessica needs a song that’s going to have a magic moment in it that she hits that note, that she grabs us. She’s got this magnetic voice when she’s vulnerable like she was on “I Will Always Love You,” where in fact the orchestra dropped out a little bit and just let that voice go. It’s just, wow, it’s one of those. She’s got that quality, and as somebody said, I think it was Jennifer who said when you go out there in the marketplace against your contemporaries you are going to be one of the best singers, and it’s absolutely true. So she needs to find that.

Phillip Phillips, I think Phil loves those sort of mid-tempo numbers that have got a nice groove to it. It’s a bit like the old, in my day, the John Sebastian, Lovin’ Spoonful type of thing, you just ... on to it, you felt great, and it was warm and wonderful. But I don’t think that’s necessarily right for him on a competition show, especially on that Nokia stage.

You’ve got to go out there and you’ve got to do something that grabs that audience and literally makes them stand up, pick up a telephone at home, and vote for him. That’s probably going to have to be something that puts a smile on your face, gets you going, “Oh, I remember that.” And I think he needs to find a song that people know because again he does find unusual songs or songs that are ... and do that. He’s just got a great personality. His Bob Seger rendition I thought the other night was the best song, and I would have thought that that endeared him to a lot of young girls out there and probably their mothers too.

QUESTION: You talked about tweaking Idol, I heard the words “creative changes” used this week. Any idea or hint of what we might expect from those changes?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: No, I’ve rejected the revolving chairs and I don’t think we’re going to have fireworks every week. So we’re still talking about it.

QUESTION: What about the idea of maybe throwing in some judges’ scores and giving that some weight in the final results?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: I still don’t understand how that works on Dancing with the Stars, to be frank. I don’t know how 10 points affects 87 million votes.

QUESTION: We’re an ABC affiliate and I haven’t figured it out either, so I don’t blame you.

NIGEL LYTHGOE: Okay.

QUESTION: From the dancing that you’ve seen on So You Think You Can Dance so far, is there any gender or any specific dance you can point to as someone fans should look forward to seeing?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: Yes, absolutely. I think we’ve got some good ballroom people this year, but the biggest thing that’s standing out to me are the creative hip-hop kids.

There’s something about formally trained dancers that beats them around a bucket and turns them around and the thing that they concentrate on is pointing those toes and straightening those legs and looking at those arms, and ... a little bit of heart and passion. And when they come to freestyle dance, they’ll do their ... and their ... and it will just be steps we know and love.

Whereas, the creative hip-hop kids come out there and do the most ridiculous things, they have no fear, they don’t know, I believe what’s going to hurt them or what’s wrong, no, you can’t do that with your knee, it doesn’t bend that way, oh, so it did, and it’s ridiculous. And they do some of the most exciting things this year that I’ve seen, one could call the exorcist removed my soul, took it into his body, cleansed it, and thank God gave it me back afterwards, and I felt a little better, I must be honest. But they did these things and you go, “Whoa, where are you coming from?”

But it’s entertaining and I loved it this year. I thought the hip-hop kids stole it for me, and there’s quite a few of them on the show this year that are hopefully going to do well in other areas too.

QUESTION: On Dance did you say that at the end of the year there will be two winners, a male and a female?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: At the end of the season there’s going to be one male winner and one female winner, yes.

QUESTION: Okay, thanks. And the other thing, when you’re talking about the choices that the people have to make on the Tuesday night, the singers, how much choice will they have? In other words, how many songs will each one sing and are they choosing all the songs themselves or are they being dictated to them?

NIGEL LYTHGOE: This year, no, it’s the same as last year, there are three songs that they will sing. One song is their favorite song that they sang on the series, so that is from when we first saw them, not on the live shows, but when we first saw them right the way through. Their second song, and I’m not sure of the order yet, we’ll wait to see what the songs are to make a proper running order, the second song is a song chosen by Simon Fuller. And their third song is their record. Their individual records, as they were last year.

SCIFI VISION: I know you have another project coming up where you’re going to be looking for talent on the Internet, maybe shifting away from the live audition format, and I was wondering if you could tell us a little a bit about what you think about using the Internet to discover talent.

NIGEL LYTHGOE: Obviously, it’s there. It’s wonderful. It’s got tons of good talent and lots of bad talent too, and you’ve got to sift through it nowadays. I think what’s happening now are companies are realizing that if you can avoid that sifting system and just put good talent on, it’s an area very much like broadcast television. So I love the fact that we can do research like that.

I also love the fact, and the whole concept of this show is you’re fantastic in your bedroom - well, that doesn’t sound very good, does it? You’re fantastic performing music in your whatever area of your home, I’m going to have to watch that one, but you’re not in front of an audience. You’re not performing. You’re just performing in front of the camera for millions of people who want to go on the Internet. So in five days time we’re actually going to take you and you are going to be opening for Rod Stewart, LMFAO, Brad Paisley. We just opened last night for Jason Aldean down in Nashville.

It’s wonderful. These kids are just gobsmacked and sometimes they succeed and sometimes they go through a very, very emotional journey, five days to get themselves ready. So it’s fun. It’s not a competition. They get the entire show. We watch them from the moment that they hear that they’re going to open for this superstar, to the moment where they come off that stage.