Kyle Sandilands and Harry Connick Jr have traded ‘respectful’ slights while offering feedback to one young contestant during live shows for Australian Idol.
The pair were unable to see eye-to-eye on how one singer should approach her next performance, after having taken the judging table by surprise with her position in the bottom four, and made no secret of their differing industry opinions.
“You could really throw a curveball,” Harry, who is halfway towards an EGOT [an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony award winner], suggested to her. “And do something completely unproduced, completely stripped down, just bare.”
Kyle interrupted with a series of disagreeing noises, prompting Harry to ask, “you disagree?”
“No, that would stress– I love your musical knowledge, but the contest side panics me,” Kyle said, “I love what you’re saying to her, because as an artist that’s valuable. But in the contest – right at the end, ‘oh, let’s do something different’.”
“No, but there’s the thing,” Harry said, addressing the young singer on stage, “I’m telling you as objectively as I can, that’s what I would do. Because we’ve already seen this, every single week it’s like a ten, ten, ten, ten, ten.”
After fumbling over his words, Harry then stated “no, actually, I’m talking to Kyle. If Kyle understands.”
“This is what I understand,” Kyle shot back. “You show up in a Ferrari not a Datsun with some mag wheels on it.”
Immediately, Harry responded to tell everyone “therein lies the difference. I understand what Kyle says but I don’t think – respectfully – you understand what I’m saying.”
Kyle went on to try and convince the contestants that their best plan of attack would be not to try and impress Harry, but instead to consider the people watching the competition.
“This is a place where you sing to win,” he stated. “You win the record deal, then you go and you do your ‘airy fairy artist party stuff’.”
The 51-year-old radio host had previously opened up to Daily Mail Australia about their relationship, telling them, “it’s not bulls***. There’s no drama really. It’s like, you know when someone just doesn’t like you, you can tell?”
He went on to admit that while he doesn’t hate Harry, the two don’t spend a lot of time with each other. He noted that he doesn’t believe there’s any real rivalry or drama, instead suggesting that the two are just too busy, but seemed to acknowledge the tension between them when he added, “maybe it’s because he doesn’t run around and praise me, which I don’t expect him to.
“Like, it’s tongue in cheek, but he’s at one end and I’m at the other.”
Images: Australian Idol / Seven
This article first appeared on Over60.