LOS ANGELES, Calif. --

It’s a month away from the return of “America’s Got Talent,” but judge David Hasselhoff has already been branded the Paula Abdul of the returning NBC show.

Simon Cowell, the show’s executive producer, compared the ‘Hoff to his fellow “American Idol” judge in a recent interview with AccessHollywood.com’s Laura Saltman.

“Actually I do [think he is the Paula of the show]. He’s not around is he?” Simon laughed, looking behind him. “He is, in so much, that he’s very unpredictable. He’s incredibly emotional and you never quite know what’s going to come out of his mouth, but there’s a good heart with David. He is genuinely one of the kindest nicest people. Massive ego, always thinks he’s right, but he’s a nice person.”

During the interview, which you can view HERE, Simon also explained what happened to Paula on last week’s “American Idol” when she began critiquing Jason Castro on a song he had yet to sing.

“I was actually laughing on the night. The true story behind it is that they told us when the show started that we weren’t going to comment on their first song. I told them in no uncertain terms, this is absolutely the wrong thing to do,” Simon told Laura.

While he didn’t throw a notebook at “Idol’s” executive producer, Nigel Lythgoe, as has been rumored, he did make sure to share his feelings.

“I wasn’t amused,” he said. “In the end we agreed we would talk to them at the end of the first performances and it completely and utterly threw Paula.”

Despite Paula’s critiquing snafu, she remains glued to her judges chair.

“We’ll only fire her when she actually becomes normal. So she’s safe,” Simon laughed.

The “Idol” judge also took the opportunity to opine on who he thinks will win the big prize.

“Let me tell you who isn’t going to win — Syesha, [is] unlikely to win,” he said. “I think it’s going to be between David Cook and David Archuleta. What I like is them in the final, I genuinely think it will be decided on what they sing on the night, so that makes it interesting.”

But which way is he leaning?

“I think that you’d have to say that David Archuleta would go in there as a slight favorite.Young kids and also grannies like him,” Simon said. “But in terms of stand out performances of the season, David Cook.”

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