This thread reminded me of a clip from the Howard Stern show, back when he was still on terrestrial radio. He had Simon Cowell on as a guest, and told him he wanted him to evaluate a singer. So this guy comes out and starts singing that song Hero from the first Spiderman movie. Simon rips into him and tells him about how he butchered the song. Howard then reveals that the guy who was singing was Josey Scott, lead singer of Saliva and one of the guys who actually performed the song. Simon then tried to backtrack.
I’m not a fan of AI by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the only season I watched at all was season 2, and that’s because a few friends made me while we waited for Angel to come on. I’m convinced that Simon Cowell is only on the show because he’s British (to most Americans, anyone British is automatically better than them) and because he’s decent at insulting people. He sucks as a talent evaluator.