Idol host blasts 'pompous, arrogant' Cowell

Ryan Seacrest, the host of television hit American Idol, said the show’s lead judge Simon Cowell was arrogant and pompous and said things that are “too harsh”, a report said today.

But Seacrest added that British Pop Idol judge Cowell was a good friend and the ”most honest” of the show’s three judges, in an interview with the Straits Times newspaper in Singapore, where a local version of the programme is planned.

“I think that he’s pompous. I think that he’s arrogant. So my feelings about him, and the way that I address him on air, are very real,” Seacrest said.

Cowell is famous for his searing putdowns of contestants that do not, in his opinion, make the grade with their performances.

“I think he says things that are at times a bit too harsh and could probably convey them in a different light so that they don’t crush a young person’s dream,” Seacrest said.

Last month, a record 65 million US phone votes were cast in the final round of the latest series of American Idol as Fantasia Barrino, a 19-year-old single mother, emerged as the tearful winner.

Seacrest said the show “will certainly be on air for the next few years”.

“There’s no telling what will happen after that but as long as people are watching it, then we should make the show,” he said.