Paula Abdul was so turned off by Seattle “The X Factor” contestant Geo Godley removing his pants on stage that she left the arena and nearly threw up, and she continued to blast the 43-year-old internet blogger on Thursday.
“I was — first of all — shocked, disgusted, offended [and] concerned for the younger kids that were in the audience and their [families] that had to escort them out of the arena,” Paula told Access Hollywood during an “X Factor” promotional appearance in New York City on Thursday morning. “It was completely inappropriate, and as you can see, a little bit delusional of him to say ‘I have another song.’ The fact that he thought that it would be OK to do that is just rather disgusting.”
Paula was thankful for the 12.5 million viewers that tuned into her new FOX reality singing competition, around 3 million more than tuned in for the debut of “American Idol.”
“It’s a blessing, it’s a blessing to be part of a show and I’ve been blessed — as well as Simon [Cowell] — to be on the first day of ‘American Idol,’ and spent almost a decade with that success and now it’s all over again with the first day and the jitters and the excitement,” she said. “It’s thrilling.”
When Simon was first promoting his new show, he told The Hollywood Reporter he’d be “disappointed” if “The X Factor” didn’t bring in 20 million viewers, and it fell short by almost 7.5 million.
“He said that?” Paula asked, when Access repeated Simon’s first statement. “God, if I only had, just a little bit of his confidence that he projects out there.”
Simon later told Access Hollywood, as his “X Factor” press campaign continued, that he wanted 10 million in ratings, which the program exceeded.
“The X Factor” returns tonight at 8/7 C on FOX.
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