"American Idol" Producer: We Didn't Want Bush On "Idol Gives Back"

OK! Magazine talked to "American Idol" mastermind Nigel Lythgoe. Buried in a piece about how this season's winner David Cook needs more personality was a nugget about President Bush. Idol didn't want him.

Nigel, 58, also spilled that during the planning for the second annual Idol Gives Back fundraising special, which aired in April, America's biggest TV show had a spat with no less a power than the White House!

He said that the show's producers were so disappointed with President Bush's efforts to combat the very poverty that the show was trying to relieve that they were embarrassed to have him on their TV show.

But Nigel said that Idol relented under pressure from the Pres's people, and allowed him to speak during the star-studded broadcast.

"The President is always saying 'I want to be on [Gives Back]," said the Brit.

"We didn't ask the President this year to say anything because we are all a bit embarrassed about him, and the office insisted that, because the [primary] candidates were on it, the President would like to come on and say 'thank you.'"

So far Nigel says, Idol Gives Back, has raised some $142million for projects in the US and Africa.

Comments

[KarlaElisa]

04:21 PM on 06/09/2008

They were a 'bit' embarrassed by him??? WTF is that about?
This show will always be "American Idiots" as far as I'm concerned....

[DKLA]

03:42 PM on 06/09/2008

BUT YOU STILL GAVE THE CROOK VALUABLE TIME!
Your show already sucked, now you prove you even offer blow-jobs!
An American "idol" is not another entertainment talent, we have enough "talent".
WHY NOT REVAMP YOUR SHOW TO REFLECT TRUE "IDOLS", like schoolteachers, or people that actually contribute or give something to our country, our future.
These "singers" you create are the modern day equivalent of "let them eat cake" you waste our time & deaden our brains.
SHAME ON YOU!!!

[mellene]

06:14 PM on 06/08/2008

You'd think Murdoch wouldn't allow such talk by FOX reps.

[CindyM2008]

01:37 PM on 06/07/2008

And yet...they caved anyway.

So, what's the point, again?

[cybertoothcat]

12:01 PM on 06/07/2008

YOU BUNCH OF DISGUSTING LIBERAL INGRATES! Bush deserved to be a part of Idol Gives Back. Never forget everything he and his administration did to help out the Katrina victims in New Orleans. Ok, ok...so during the devastation he was celebrating a big birthday bash for John McCain, but I'm sure he was thinking of a way to drop the leftover cake from the plane when he did his Katrina fly-over. And his mother, Barbara Bush, made a large donation for educational software to be purchased through Jeb's company. Don't you remember the hungry, thirsty, miserable people suffering in the heat and wading in contaminated waters holding up signs? Sure, a couple signs said, "Help," but mostly they said, "Send educational software."
Bush tried so hard to prevent a catastrope by sending the Army Corps of Engineers all the money needed for strengthening and rebuilding the levees, but the voices Bush heard (Cheney, Halliburton, etc.) INSISTED that the money be spent on the war instead. Maybe they weren't protected from hurricanes, but even the ones who suffered horribly and those who died needlessly because of Katrina were protected from terrorists!

[DKLA]

03:45 PM on 06/09/2008

Bush only deserves to be prosecuted for murder & rigging elections.
Its bad enogh he sued his way into our White House. He is beneath scum!

[nexus1961]

06:34 PM on 06/09/2008

Very Colbert-esque.. and funny too.
Don't leave unsaid that the educational software was also a source of
kickback funds for Barbara Bush & Jeb Bush!!

[Joey2250]

08:32 AM on 06/07/2008

I love the anti-socialist comments. We should get rid of the Police and Fire Departments in America too right? You do realize those are socialist programs. Or did you? Your taxes go to pay their salaries. Of course those saying that probably want us all to hire Blackwater for our personal police. Next time an emergency like your house catches fire, make sure you "take care of it yourself". And don't forget to duck when Blackwater opens fire in the middle of an intersection in your town.

[WireDolly]

01:52 PM on 06/09/2008

Bingo.

[iratior]

01:08 AM on 06/07/2008

As I browsed the entertainment section of Huffington Post for the first time this evening, and saw pictures of the actors, I had to wonder who could do the funniest job dressing in drag and imitating Cindy McCain. She was shown briefly on the evening news, and had on what looked like a cheerleader's dress -- veritably inviting parody. She could even have money bags for imitation breasts.

[ashabot]

08:27 PM on 06/06/2008

Bush is desperate to fulfill his WISH LIST before he leaves office. What a fool.

[JustAMinuteSweetie]

08:14 PM on 06/06/2008

Others judge how much you care by how much money you give. Someone should tell this fool that it is Congress who decides how to spend our tax dollars.

[the964kid]

04:16 PM on 06/06/2008

If they had put Bush on the TV their ratings would have plummeted that moment. He's the least popular president in recorded history - which makes him radioactive.

[HopeandChange]

03:43 PM on 06/06/2008

During the Bush administration the U.S.A. has given and done more to help Africa than at any other time in history.

[cowboyneok]

01:36 AM on 06/07/2008

hmmm... prove it.

[Akronym]

03:49 AM on 06/07/2008

i wonder what's buried deep beneath African soil that would be of interest to Bush......

[lochnessmonster]

02:44 PM on 06/06/2008

And I didn't want "Idol Gives Back" on my TV...and it wasn't!

As with any charity I consider giving to, I'd like to know how much of the money donated really goes to the efforts they say they are funding or does someone make a million dollar salary like the Red Cross, United Way etc. head honchos?

[BWonka]

02:29 PM on 06/06/2008

They didn't want him and WE don't want him.

Some legacy for the Bu$hCo Crime Family.

[massive]

02:26 PM on 06/06/2008

I'm sure Bush thought that the title of the show meant they were giving something back TO HIM.

"American Idol gives back? Cool! What are they givin' me?"

[SouthpawSass]

02:12 PM on 06/06/2008

Uh, that's like having Heinrich Himmler at the ground breaking ceremony of the Holocaust Memorial Museum.... Very inappropriate, even for the Brits.