On American Idol, they hold nothing back when criticizing or complimenting the contestants.
But isn't it about time Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell were the ones under the spotlight? Entertainment Weekly thought so, as the magazine gathered together past finalists Ace Young, Kimberley Locke and Anthony Federov for a judgment on the judges.
Here's what they had to say:
RANDY
One of the only standouts from a lackluster guys' night, Blake Lewis still came under criticism from Randy for not breaking out his mad beatboxing skills during his rendition of Keane's ''Somewhere Only We Know.'' Randy even suggested Blake should beatbox every week.
Ace: Well, it's a singing competition. Taylor [Hicks] is really talented on harmonica, but he can't play the harmonica as part of the competition.
Kimberley: That's where the confusion comes in, I think. We all know he can't beatbox every week. That's not how the show works. I guess if he can incorporate beatboxing into every genre, that would make an interesting show; I don't know how far it would get him through the competition, though.
Randy also laid into Nicole Tranquillo â one of the two women voted off this week â for tackling Chaka Khan's ''Stay,'' a song Randy felt was ''too urban'' for her.
Anthony: I agreed with him on that. She does have a pop voice. I don't know â if that's the kind of music she likes singing, that's fine, but I think he was on point with that one. Every performance I watched, [Randy] was literally taking the words out of my mouth. He was dead-on every single performance.
Ace: I don't know what [Randy] meant by it, but I think if a song's too anything â if it's too country or too pop or whatever â I think they're saying they didn't fall into the feeling of the song. The hardest thing with Idol is you only get a minute and a half [to sing]. So ''Stairway to Heaven'' is the wrong song. Song selection is key.
Kimberley: I didn't like [Randy's] comment. I do think [the song] was a little bit unnatural for [Tranquillo], with some of her facial expressions. I think she went in for it too deep instead of just being herself. But come on, that girl hit those notes. I was very impressed with her. I know Randy Jackson of all people is not a prejudiced guy, but had I been standing there, I would've said, ''So what are you saying, I'm not black enough to sing that song?'' I was kind of offended by his comments, and that's the first time Randy's ever really offended me. Most of the time it's Simon.
PAULA
Paula, meanwhile, went easy on Tranquillo, repeatedly brushing off Randy and Simon's criticisms of her by exclaiming that the girl can sing.
Anthony: I disagreed with Paula on that one. What she's doing is great; she's trying to give the performers more confidence. I think she heard a very good voice, [but] she was a little bit off in terms of judging.
Kimberley: Paula's an artist and she can be sympathetic with us, but sometimes I think she just flat-out lies just to make us feel better. She told the one girl [Haley Scarnato], with the black one-piece pantsuit with the high-waisted belt, [that] she was great, and I didn't think she was great.
After Simon commented that erstwhile bluesman Sundance Head didn't know what to do with his hands, Paula, well, started rubbing her chest and telling Sundance he should do the same. What was that about?
Ace: I have no idea, honestly. The judges have their own inside jokes that sometimes don't even pertain to the person on stage. They've known each other for so long that they can just pass [insider] signals [to each other] and have a whole conversation.
And then there was Paula's volume-tastic hair.
Kimberley: Paula's hair looked a little dry. She has a lot of hair right now, a whole up-down thing going all at the same time â like, she had a pony in the back, but it was all really down. But Paula's beautiful, so she can take hair risks.
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