Nigel Lythgoe says talent is measured by record sales and tours

Yesterday, in response to our post where Nigel Lythgoe claims that The Voice "needs better talent", one of our writers Jeffrey Christ tweeted Nigel that The Voice talent was in fact better than American Idol's for the past 3 years.

Nigel then responded that the talent on these shows (American Idol, The Voice, The X Factor, etc.) is measured by record sales and tours. Woah. He can't be serious.

Records sales should never be a measure of talent. That's like saying Ke$ha is more talented than . The only reason Nigel is saying this is because American Idol has a 10-season head start on The Voice and The X Factor, and he can drop Kelly Clarkson's name ad infinitum.

And by his own measure, then we shouldn't take American Idol seriously when they say "we have the most talented group of singers" every single season. Idol's track record of failures in record sales is legendary. For every Kelly Clarkson, Idol has 50 talentless hacks they put on the show that will never sell. As in ne-ver. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure this out.

You can even do multiple tests within American Idol's own singers to contest Nigel's assertions about talent: Blake Lewis sold more than Melinda Doolittle. Blake more talented than Melinda? Blake Lewis sold more than Crystal Bowersox. Blake more talented than Crystal? William Hung sold more than Danny Gokey. William Hung more talented than Gokey? William Hung sold more than Allison Iraheta. William Hung more talented than Allison?

What an insulting thing to say from Nigel. Specially to American Idol fans who have supported our favorites because of talent and not record sales.

From Nigel Lythgoe:

@jeffreychrist record sales and tours can be the only criteria on which to justify the extent of each shows talent. Opinions are subjective.