Clay Aiken Thinks American Idol Judges Are Too Soft Now

Clay Aiken thinks American Idol judges have gone soft.

The multiplatinum recording artist weighed in on the show that catapulted him to fame in 2003 in an exclusive conversation with Us Weekly. More than 20 years later, he still looks back fondly on the lessons he learned as a result of the judges’ criticisms.

“We cared what the judges said, not only because we didn’t want them to say something mean, but also because we would take it and then go back and next week say, ‘Don’t do this again,’” he said. “Or they said, ‘I’m singing too many ballads. Sing something uptempo.’ You would make a point to improve yourself.”

Aiken, 45, added that you can go back and watch the first few seasons of the show and track the evolution of the contestants based on feedback from judges Paula Abdul, Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell.

“I appreciate the criticism,” he added. “Another thing that I think made the show great was you could see growth in [season 1 winner] Kelly [Clarkson] from the time she walked in that studio, that audition, till the time she made it to the end.

He continued, “You can see growth in me, in Ruben [Studdard]. Ruben stopped wearing the jerseys after a certain point. Fantasia [Barrino] grew. And a lot of that was because we would get criticism every week.”

That’s no longer the case, Aiken believes. He points to season 23 winner Iam Tongi, whom Aiken worked with during the season.

“When he opened his mouth, it was like something hits you,” Aiken recalled. “And wow, I don’t think I’ve heard that with anyone else that I’ve listened to sing so great. But he stayed doing the same thing every episode.”

According to Aiken, Tongi’s static performance calls into question the need for having judges at all.

“We could save so much time if we would just skip over the 45 to 50 seconds where they’re all going to say, ‘You did a lovely job and you’re a great star,’” he said. “I mean, they all are stars, but some of them I think could be so much better if they were pushed a little bit more.”

Though Aiken doesn’t watch Idol religiously, he says he keeps up with the latest news from the show, knowing he’s going to be asked about it. In fact, Aiken stepped away from music entirely more than a decade ago when he became a parent, not wanting to miss “those very cute moments.”

Now that his son Parker, 16, is a teenager, he is wading back into music with the Friday, November 22, release of his Christmas album Christmas Bells Are Ringing. The LP includes a new version of the Bing Crosby classic “Do You Hear What I Hear?,” which is the album’s first single.

“It’s about the consistency of having the same people around you, people who love you. And these songs are all sort of that,” Aiken said of his album. “They’re the warm, cozy songs that everybody knows we remember them from. They will evoke memories for people because they’ve heard them for years.”

With reporting by Christina Garibaldi