"It's Going to be a Very Strong Season, I Think": An Interview with American Idol Producer Nigel Lythgoe

American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe participated in a media interview conference call to answer questions about the upcoming season of Idol as well as clear up some nagging issues from past seasons. What follows is a transcript of this call, with questions from the media in bold and Nigel’s answers following.

The question I have is last year seemed really broad. I mean, like “songs from your birth year” and “top 40 from any chart” allowed every contestant to find his or her comfort zone. Really there was no sense of versatility displayed, because you could always find a country song, you could always find a rock song. Will we get a better theme variety this year, more like in the past seasons?

That’s funny. We never seem to please anybody with this. You try to please everybody and you end up pleasing nobody. This last season we felt as though we, and rightly so, had been criticized that we stayed away from modern songs and stayed away from the charts at this point in time. We recently did that in seasons past because we don’t particularly think there are any great songs out there at the moment. They come out in sort of dribs and drabs. The chart is predominated by hip-hop, as is the radio, which isn’t necessarily great for American Idol singers. But we dipped our feet in the water last year, and I think successfully, with doing the top 40 of this week mixed along with the sound of Philadelphia. We always push them. You’ve got to remember that once we dip back into the sixties and this sort of thing, the kids have never heard of these songs. So we constantly try and update it and do different things. But the fact is, there is only a certain amount of genres out there and if you do something like film music, then they have the choice of doing film musicals or just music that has appeared in films. So we always try to give them a huge variation.

... like John Stevens would have had the challenge of the Gloria Estefan week, where it was such a clash for the style that it was sort of interesting to see how they would adapt to it, and I’m sure…

Yes, I don’t disagree with that at all, I must say. And yes, we’re going down the route of songwriters again and genres. But we always try and give them a huge field to play with. You know if you’re great songwriter like an Elton John, or a Carol King, or somebody like that, you have done different styles of music yourself. If we could ever get the Beatles released, they have got the most stupid sort of songs like, “When I’m 64,” to some of the best ballads ever written. So, if you’re a good songwriter, you have done a huge range of different styles of music anyway.

Okay, and one of the criticisms as well last year is that in the top 24, some of the contestants that were in that had really never been seen before in the auditions, where you would frequently…

That happens every year.

So that will be the same this year?

Yes, we only have a certain number of hours. Generally, we like to show you the people that don’t continue through because that is their story for that show. Most of the good stories, we’re losing people. So, it doesn’t necessarily follow these stories that you see in earlier shows are going to continue through the series. And we hope that in changing the format, which we did last year, you’re getting to see these people before they hit the top 12. You have got them for at least three or four weeks before there is a top 12 don’t forget, which has never happened before last year.

I sense song choices are the utmost importance. Does anyone help the finalists in their selections, and is there a way to change a song that just isn’t working even with rehearsal?

Yes and yes. We have obviously got Byrd [Assistant Editor’s Note: Voice Coach Debra Byrd, who was interviewed by FoxesOnIdol here], and last year we had another vocal coach. We take the kids through songs, our music clearance people play them. On the Sunday of the previous week, we play them the music of whatever genre we’re dealing with. We give them CDs of that, they listen to them and decide what they like. It’s never worked like this, it has worked on a couple of times where two people wanted to sing the same song. But if everybody wanted to sing the same song, they could. We try and help them as much as possible, right up until the last minute. If they have been working on it on a Thursday and a Friday, and we go to band call on a Saturday morning, we’ll change it right up to that Friday night.

A difficult question, people are obviously trying to be as awful as possible in the auditions so they can be part of the aired episodes. Do you feel the show is being exploited by these obviously bad singers?

Well, in truth, with the bad singers, it depends where you come from. I love the deluded. I don’t love the university and the graduate that comes along, makes himself look stupid because he is on a bet. We record everybody, so we’ve got it, and we’ll normally drop that into a montage of stupidity, but not feature them as a soloist. It’s the William Hungs that I love. It’s the ones that believe you can be successful - and it’s everybody’s dream - you can be successful in this country by working hard. And he forgets that you need a modicum of talent as well, which he didn’t have. But he believes like so many that come along to the auditions that if we invest our time as professionals in them, we can make them a star.