American Idol judge Simon Cowell would like to see Lady Gaga come on as a mentor on the show this year. Cowell believes that the artist is very relevant to the pop world at present which would make her an obvious choice for the role. Former mentors on the show have included Bono, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Slash and Diana Ross to name a few.
On the future of American Idol without Simon Cowell, the judge said that whoever replaces him should be a person with a solid background of music industry experience. He downplayed Howard Stern’s chances by saying that since Stern did not fit those criteria it was unlikely that the shock jock would be chosen. However, Cowell did wish Stern the best of luck if he was serious about taking up the job. Stern has been stirring up a storm on his radio station Sirius XM trying to get his name into the hat for consideration. Many think that this is another attempt in a long line of attempts to belittle the show.
When asked to name a replacement, Cowell remained neutral and reiterated his earlier point by citing an example of judging Olympic Ice Skating. He said that unless you know exactly what the sport is about you cannot pass criticism or award points. He also pointed out that increasingly on TV, judges were being replaced by personalities and that this trend would cause issues in the long run as they would not be able to spot a “diamond in the rough” as well as a person from the industry would.
Cowell leaves Idol at the end of this season to launch his own show next year.
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