The American Idol Season 14 judges round auditions took place in a the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge this week. Adam Lambert subbed for Keith Urban, who is in Australia attending his father-in-law’s funeral.
The press lined up to talk to the trio, but TVLine’s Michael Slezak got the best sound bites. He always asks the important questions! Check out a summary of what Jennifer Lopez and Harry Connick Jr. had to say about the upcoming season of Idol, below. Adam’s quotes are covered in a separate post HERE.
Jennifer Lopez didn’t exactly care for season 13’s arguably cruel “twists.” I didn’t love it,” said Jennifer when asked about cutting 10 of the Top 30 before they had the opportunity to sing, and forcing the Top 5 to vote whether or not to eliminate the lowest vote getter, “I was like, ‘First of all they need extra time on [a smaller] stage before they get to this point!’ Last year, the contestants were thrown into the fire, and I felt like it wasn’t even at Top 12, but maybe three or four weeks after that, before they settled. I want to have the middle rounds, I want them to have their time to adjust to this craziness. It’s like putting the first 10 years of my career in four weeks. I wouldn’t want that.”
“Our job is not to pick the winner, our job is to pick a pool of people who we feel could actually have that career,” Jennifer explained about the panel’s goals, ” That process is a tough process ’cause we’re looking at the whole package — everything it takes to be a recording star. You think about Phillip Phillips or Scotty [McCreery], and they’re real artists, not just singers. That’s what we’re looking for.”
However, as Harry Connick Jr. has already mentioned in a recent interview, he’s adjusting his judging criteria . “We’re not putting people through based on, ‘Maybe in a few weeks they’ll really get into it.’ There’s no time for that. That’s not what this show is,” he said. “But I don’t know if it’s about coming in more polished, as opposed to coming in with a greater wealth of talent. We’ve seen people who are really raw, but you can tell when the bright lights go on them, they’re going to be able to bring it.”
He’s also wondering if last year’s contestants were challenged properly. Allowing them to sing songs from their own repertoire week after week didn’t give them the opportunity to grow, “I was telling Adam yesterday that the reason I like Hollywood Week so much is that it forces you so far out of your comfort zone, and as you know, being in show business, you’re required to do so many things that feel uncomfortable in so many ways,” Harry continued. “It’s not like we’re looking to see how well they sing in Hollywood Week, but how well they deal with being out of their comfort zones. Maybe having a few things be completely out of left field [in Season 14] would be cool.”
Check out the full interview at TV Line
