who appeared to be rolling his eyes either at the tragedy or Richardson's invoking of it. Cowell claims he was actually speaking to Paula Abdul and did not hear Richardson mention the tragedy. The next day, executive producer Nigel Lythgoe issued a statement about what really happened on the show, and on the results show that night, Cowell stated that he would never disrespect any of the victims. A screen clip was then shown depicting Cowell and Abdul talking with an inset of Richardson and Seacrest talking. The clip demonstrated that Cowell and Abdul did have a brief exchange as the contestant began his statement. However, neither Abdul nor Cowell were speaking at the mention of the words Virginia Tech and Cowell looked directly at Richardson as he completed his statement of support for the students. Ryan Seacrest's results show spoiler Prior to the March 17, 2010 results episode of the ninth season delayed airing on the west coast, Ryan Seacrest tweeted the outcome of the episode, which angered some fans. That episode of the show then suffered "the smallest audience among 18–49 year-olds for a regularly scheduled in-season episode in Idol history." Paula Abdul judges song before it's sung For the season 7 Top 5 episode, originally aired April 29, 2008, the judging was modified in order to fit two songs per contestant into the show. Rather than judging each performance, the judges waited until each contestant had sung once, then were to give a quick critique of each contestants' first song. When the judging came to Paula, she commented on Jason Castro's first song, then proceeded to critique his second song that he had not yet sung. Judges' critique in season ten During the tenth season online critics from major news sources like Brian Mansfield of USA Today, Dalton Ross of Entertainment Weekly, Andrea Reiher of Zap2it, and Tom Gliatto of People Magazine criticized the judges for being too nice, not being honest enough, offering hardly any constructive criticism towards the contestants, and for not giving any guidance and direction for the viewers/voters in terms of why they should or should not be voting for someone. Executive producer Ken Warwick responded to these criticisms and said, "The truth of the matter is these kids are very good and I wouldn't influence the judges to say anything they don't absolutely believe ... They are trying to keep things on