Now that the Sanjaya Malakar dismissal from American Idol has had time to sink in, how does Sanjaya’s most vocal critic feel about it?
“I was on a very happy plane last night. I miss him probably in the same way I miss my favorite horror movie. And I don’t mean that nastily. I like horror movies,” Simon Cowell said via satellite during an appearance on Thursday’s The Oprah Winfrey Show. “A very sweet guy. Quite entertaining but a horrible singer. That was the problem.”
During Idol’s sixth season, Cowell had made little secret of the fact that he didn’t exactly see a singing future for Malakar.
He criticized the 17-year-old’s vocal ability almost as much as most guys complimented the legs on Haley Scarnato.
On Thursday, he also felt the need to reiterate his previous comments that he planned on quitting as a judge of the competition depending on how far Malakar made it.
“If he made it to the top three, I’m gone,” Cowell told Oprah.
“But they wouldn’t let me.”
Considering the fact that he was far from a “Fanjaya,” who is Simon now pulling for on American Idol? A couple talents came to mind.
“I have a soft spot for [Melinda Doolittle]. Very sweet girl. I like her,” said Cowell. “Jordin was sensational this week. Chris I like because he’s contemporary. But I’m a little bit worried about singing through the nose… My Top 3 or Top 2 would be Melinda, Jordin and I’m not writing off Lakisha.”
In addition to having to suffer through several-too-many Malakar performances than he would have liked, Cowell said there’s another aspect of Idol’s sixth season that’s been bugging him.
“I’m a little bit frustrated. I haven’t had enough, ‘Oh my God!’ moments. I want to see a few more,” he told Oprah, adding he thinks fellow judge Paula Abdul has become too sensible. “I love when she talks complete and utter rubbish. We haven’t had enough of that the past few weeks.”
We don’t know about Simon, but seeing Sanjaya hanging out with Petra Nemcova was cause for an ‘Oh my God’ moment.