Only a week before NBC’s “The Voice” returns for its second season and FOX’s “American Idol” for its 100th season, it seems like the actual interest is not about who’s going to sing better, it’s about which show is going to get higher ratings. Although there was some mutual trash-talking in the past, this weekend the gloves finally came off. Apparently the shows’ judges can be very, umm, judgy.
It started with American Idol judge Randy “you ma’ dawg, dawg!” Jackson, who said, “I think that ‘Idol’ is still the best TV show of its kind, anywhere. We’re the original.” Randy was also referring to “The X Factor” featuring former Idol judges Simon Cowell and Paula Abdul. “We kind of invented this whole game that everybody’s now copying.”
Idol executive producer Ken Warwick added that Idol is “the show that produces the stars.”
It only took a few days for Maroon 5 singer and “The Voice” judge Adam Levine to respond. Levine is known to be unafraid of expressing his opinions. He told Zap2it that “People try out for whatever shows they want to try out for, it’s not like Publishers Clearing House shows up at your house and says, ‘Congratulations! You’ve won the chance to be on this show.’ That’s bull****, and everyone knows that.”
Levine added that “any sort of personal attack, to me, is just a form of vulnerability and insecurity.” “To poke fun is one thing, and we’ve fired back and forth at each other, but there’s never been any malicious intent. Naturally, a competition does exist, because the shows are similar … but it’s ‘American Idol.’ It’s not going anywhere. It’s the biggest show on Planet Earth. We’re just interested in doing our thing.”
So good with his choice of words, Levine is. I honestly don’t care about any of the singers on either shows, I just really want to see a Steven Tyler (or J-Lo) vs. Christina Aguilera (or Cee Lo Green). Mud wrestling, if possible.
