TORONTO - "American Idol" judges were asleep at the wheel when they chose the vocally challenged Sanjaya Malakar to be a finalist on the popular singing show, says "Canadian Idol" judge Farley Flex.
And, he boasts, there's no chance he and fellow Canuck judges Sass Jordan, Zack Werner and Jake Gold could have a similar lapse in judgment.
"Sanjaya was put in there by the judges, it wasn't the public that put him in there - the public kept him in there, but they didn't put him in there," said Flex.
"I'm very confident in the integrity of our panel and our vision of what we see as being the Top 22 to turn over to the public, so I'm pretty confident in saying there wouldn't be a Sanjaya scenario in our world."
As "Canadian Idol" gears up for its fifth season, beginning June 5th on CTV, host Ben Mulroney also had fighting words for his show's American counterpart.
"It was not necessarily the most exciting season or the most talented season," Mulroney said of "American Idol," adding that might have been why Malakar, with his bizarre song choices and ever-changing hairstyles, managed to crack the Top 10.
"'American Idol' caters to controversy quite a bit and they really played to that ... it was something to do."
It's in stark contrast to this season's "Canadian Idol," he adds.
"My producers are salivating when they think about this new season so that's a good sign; it means they've got some really interesting plans for who's coming in. And just having watched the auditions and seen our Top 100 - this is a polished group, it's the most multicultural group we've ever had, it's the most representative of the country from coast to coast. I really have high, high hopes that this is going to be a great season."
The most striking change viewers will notice is that this year's crop of contestants were allowed to audition with instruments, something previously tried by "Australian Idol."
"Everyone's got reasons to audition and they've got reasons not to audition, and we just eliminated one of the reasons not to audition," Mulroney said on the line from Calgary, where he's doing charity work as part of his UNICEF ambassador duties.
"It certainly adds an element of musicality. There's a new angle now ... the risk involved in playing an instrument live on television."
Flex says seeing the contestants play instruments in addition to singing helps the judging panel better envision them as professional musicians.
"It brought another dimension of talent," he said. "It doesn't necessarily make them better, but it gives them more dimensions. If someone's playing an instrument and doing it well, along with singing well, it's a way better sell."
For his part, Mulroney promises to continue to be a kind and compassionate presence for the "Idol" contestants when they feel particularly brutalized by the judges, in particular the cutting Werner.
"It's enough that they have to deal with the pressure of going in front of millions of people and dealing with public scrutiny in the press -- they should have at least one person on their side," he says with a laugh.
But Flex says the tough criticism is part of what makes "Idol" - which has been a ratings juggernaut for CTV - so watchable.
"At the end of the day, if all four of us were mean, the show would have been cancelled by now; if all four of us were nice, the show would have been cancelled by now," he said, defending his fellow judges and their no-holds-barred critiques.
"When we make our commentary, we're not doing that to get somebody ousted or keep somebody on; we're doing that so that if they do go on, or get kicked off, they have the proper information to get better in their next circumstance, whether that's next week on the show or next week busking on Yonge Street."
