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Last month, the SEVENTH Season of American Idol premiered on FOX with an audience larger than that of CBS, NBC, ABC, and the CW combined. The catalyst behind the show’s success is Simon Cowell. He’s rude and he’s brash to some contestants but we discovered Cowell to be quite endearing during our exclusive interview on the Booker & Sarah Morning Show.

B&S: We’ve have been watching the awful auditions of American Idol that we enjoy but I know you hate. The question is--in the end is it worth it when a winner is finally crowned?

Simon: The answer is yes; it is worthwhile. Is it fun doing it? No. It is becoming increasingly like torture, but you have to give most of the people who come in at least 3 or 4 minutes. What’s amazing even after 7 seasons--and we’ve had some shockingly bad people this year--is how much they still believe that they’re right and I’m wrong. They’ve gotten more argumentative with me this year and all I’m trying to do is help them.

But I think that you’ve got to have that mix within the show. I think that if everybody were competent then it would be the most boring show on TV. It is fun for me to watch, it is torture for me to do it.

We have read from the producers of American Idol that one of the big changes this year is less focus on the mentoring like we saw last year with Diana Ross and J-Lo and more on the background, the history of the contestants, so we can help build a bond with those contestants.

Well I think I sort of understand what they were saying because I think when you run a 90 minute or even a two hour show on American Idol you actually haven’t a huge amount of air time to do an awful lot of stuff with. It’s very difficult for the audience to get to know much about the person. I mean if you’d of asked me, for instance, what do you know about the girl who won last year other than the fact that she’s a good singer, I couldn’t really tell you myself and I was a judge on the show. And I think that was also the same with the people who watched the show at home. We didn’t let the audience at home know enough about were they live, what their likes or dislikes were because everything was about their chat with as you say Diana Ross or J-lo or whoever it was. And I think this year there will be more focus in the contestants and less focus on the person who is mentoring in that particular week. It’s a balance and I think it’s the right decision

What other changes do you have in store for this year and what are some of the things you weren’t happy about with American Idol season six?

Look, 90 percent of what happened on the show last year was good. I’ve always thought it was a very well produced show. But as I said earlier on, we are completely reliant on who walks in the door in terms of quality of contestants. So most of our focus this year was to make sure we got a better top 12 and a more interesting top 12 than what we got last year. Cosmetic changes, there will be a new set which will be good. They tried a couple of bits and pieces in the Hollywood realms having people play instruments which wasn’t particularly a good thing or a bad thing. I don’t think it made too much difference because we were lucky enough that the contestants were better and that was the most important thing. But you know on a show like Idol I don’t think you necessarily want to make a change for the sake of change. I think you have to evolve the process and that’s what I think you’re going to see this year… an improved show with much, much better singers and more interesting contestants.

We read you were giving advice to Britney spears and that you would be able to help her out. What is your advice for Britney Spears and do you think it’s too late for her to make a comeback?

Well, it’s never too late and I think she’s the most searched artist on the internet in the world at the moment so she has a head start. I genuinely think if I sat down with Britney I would remind her of all the good things in her life, which is her kids, her money, and her success. And then I’d take her out of where she’s living at the moment and ask her to go live with her family for six months because if you live normally and do normal things you’ll suddenly find that the paparazzi aren’t camped outside your door every day. She’s welcome to call me anytime.