<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Nigel Lythgoe has claimed that Simon Cowell chooses contestants on reality shows that he can &amp;quot;pick on&amp;quot;. The So You Think You Can Dance judge, who worked with Cowell on seven seasons of American Idol, said that they often had disagreements about which singers they put through to the live shows. &amp;quot;He wanted real characters he could pick on and I didn&amp;#039;t. I wanted the best talent that we could have,&amp;quot; Lythgoe told The Mirror. &amp;quot;I think some years you could put the crazies in there and have him pick on them and other years you just need pure talent. The moment the public start to think, &amp;#039;Hold on a minute they&amp;#039;re just there for Simon to pick on&amp;#039;, you lose the integrity of the show. I believe in trying to keep the integrity.&amp;quot; He also admitted that there were often issues with Cowell&amp;#039;s time-keeping when they worked together. &amp;quot;Simon doesn&amp;#039;t turn up on set on time because he doesn&amp;#039;t wake up on time or he&amp;#039;s too busy doing his press-ups,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;He would really apologise, he would come in and say, &amp;#039;Nigel, I can&amp;#039;t do it. These are the facts of life, I can&amp;#039;t do it. I need time to wake up properly&amp;#039;. &amp;quot;He would always be one or two hours late. After four or five years of it, we knew it wasn&amp;#039;t going to happen, so we&amp;#039;d all tootle around, have a nice lunch, go out, or do something else until he turned up.&amp;quot; Lythgoe quit his role as executive producer on Idol in 2008, opting to focus his time on SYTYCD. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/so-you-think-you-can-dance/news/a194001/lythgoe-cowell-picks-people-to-bully/>