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What Does Duets' John Legend Have to Say About Other Singing Competitions?!

Exclusive! Grammy winner gives his opinions about judges, but Robin Thicke and Kelly Clarkson have other ideas

By Kristin Dos Santos, Tierney Bricker May 16, 2012 6:25 PMTags
Watch: John Legend Bashes New "X Factor" Judges

John Legend is officially throwing down the gauntlet.

The singer is set to star in ABC's new reality singing competition Duets, which pairs superstar judges with contestants on stage for, you guessed it, duets, and he's not shy about expressing his opinion about the merits of Duets. To be specific, he says his show's judges can actually sing.

We caught up with the Grammy winner and his fellow Duets judges Kelly Clarkson and Robin Thicke at the EW-ABC Upfront party, where they all sounded off on Britney and Demi's new X Factor gig. Plus, what does The X Factor's season-one winner think of the new judges?

"You know it's interesting. It should be very interesting. I don't have much to say," he tells us when we asked him about The X Factor's new judges. "It's interesting when people, you know, are judging singing competitions when they aren't really singers."

Robin has a very different opinion on the subject, telling us, "Oh come on, everything Britney does, she excels at. Demi is a lovely young lady, and I'm sure they'll do nothing but make the show a lot more fun to watch."

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And what about Kelly? "I'm excited for both of them. I'm a big fan of both of them. Both of those girls are super sweet," she gushes. "I think it's fun for them too to just be more out in the public eye again. I think those two are two you really want to root for and you really want them to succeed, so I think that's exciting."

Kelly also thinks Britney and Demi are exactly what The X Factor needs after their somewhat underwhelming first season. "Obviously they are both performers so...I think that show really needs it I don't think everybody latched onto that show like they thought they would," the original American Idol champ tells us.

We also caught up with X Factor winner Melanie Amaro at a showcase for Cher Lloyd, a former contestant on the U.K.'s version of the show, where she tells us, "I'm really happy Simon chose two wonderful people. I think Demi's going to bring that youthful thing, and then because Britney's so experienced in the music business, I think she'll do very well. I'm very happy and I'm looking forward to both of them!"

Do you think John's comments were too harsh or spot on? Sound off in the comments!

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