EXCLUSIVE
Mission accomplished: We are now officially members of Randy Jackson’s Dawg Pound.
The “American Idol” judge sat down with TheWrap this week, sharing his views on the show’s voting problem, Casey Abrams and life without Simon Cowell. He even offered a coy prediction about this season’s eventual winner.
Let’s just say he doesn’t think it will be a female contestant.
"It's definitely going to be a boy," he said. "And I think it might be a young boy."
Also read: How to Fix the 'American Idol' Voting Problem
Jackson, wearing smooth-looking shades and a leather jacket, didn’t shy away from the show’s supposed female problem, tackling it head on during our 30-minute meeting. His view: The poor track record of women on the show lately boils down to gender voting tendencies.
He believes that girls vote for boys, and that girls tend to vote more readily than guys, who may get ribbing from their pals that doing so on “Idol” is cheesy.
“I think you just say, girls obviously vote more vigorously than boys,” he said. Jackson, who was in typically gregarious form during our meeting at Henson Studios, defended the judges’ decision to save Abrams.
“Yeah, it was mad early in the season to do it, but in my estimation we had no choice,” he said. “I mean, this guy is so uber talented. We’ve never had someone with this kind of talent on the competition.”
Video: Randy Jackson on the “American Idol” voting process
He also acknowledged that the show had gotten a little predictable before Cowell’s exit. As sorry as he was to see him go, “it gave us an opportunity to try and change the show and the sentiment of the show ever so slightly – to grow it up in season 10."
He believes that "the show needed a little bit of a different presence moving forward. It couldn’t have been the same show again and still have the success we’re having now.”
We received no fewer than 10 fist bumps from the man during our meeting. As card-carrying members of Jackson’s exclusive club, we can now say, “Check it out, Dawg.
Video: Randy Jackson on Simon Cowell’s departure
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