Dep Musicians

So You Think You Can Dance judge Nigel Lythgoe has admitted that he is jealous of his one time protégée Simon Cowell.

Nigel gave Simon his first TV tole on ITV’s Pop Idol and then brought him to America for American Idol. However Simon has since surpassed any expectations Nigel may have had of him and he moaned in Hello! magazine: “I am jealous of him, financially, but also of his power as king of entertainment on both sides of the Atlantic.”

Nigel, 60, added: “Simon is always anxious to be liked and I don’t think he believed nasty Simon would be accepted in America. ‘They won’t get it, they won’t like me’, he said.

“He was right. People would have happily taken him out with baseball bats.

“Gradually they came round as they realised what he said to the contestants was true.”

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