By John Kiesewetter
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LOS ANGELES - Simon says most of you can't sing.

"Most people aren't very good (singers)," says acerbic Simon Cowell, one of the three judges on Fox's American Idol talent show.

But that didn't stop more than 50,000 aspiring vocalists from auditioning for the second American Idol series, starting today on Fox (8-9:30 p.m., Channels 19, 45).

Some have genuine talent, more gifted than the young singers on last summer's hit series.

Many don't.

ON THE AIR

American Idol airs 8-9 p.m. Tuesdays and 8:30-9 p.m. Wednesdays on Fox (Channels 19, 45) today through May 7.   The program schedule: • Today and Wednesday: Audition highlights. (90-minute specials) • Jan. 28: More audition tapes. • Jan. 29: 32 semi-finalists revealed. • Feb. 4-March 5: 10 finalists selected by audience and judges. • March 11-April 30: One performer eliminated each week. • May 6: Final two singers perform. • May 7: Winner announced live.

"We had 50,000 turn up. (And) we had 40,000 people who couldn't sing," Simon tells the Television Critics Association meeting here.

"They all believe they can sing," he says. "It's a combination of they're deaf, or they're insane. I honestly don't know what it is . . . These people come in and they really, really genuinely believe that they're good."

After a young man named Keith butchered Madonna's "Like A Virgin" at an Idol audition in Atlanta, Simon says: "I'm absolutely serious. I think you're possibly the worst singer in the world."

Most came to the tryouts seeking the instant celebrity on national television achieved by Kelly Clarkson, last summer's winner.

"Everyone in the world now wants to be famous, and they don't understand it takes something called talent," says Simon, who will be joined again by judges Paula Abdul, a singer and choreographer, and Randy Jackson, a Grammy-winning record producer.

"Their friends and their family ... say they're good (singers)," says Simon, a record producer and formerly a judge on the British show Pop Idol. "And we're there to say, `No, you're not.' "

Fueled by huge summer ratings, Fox has expanded the franchise by showing open auditions today, Wednesday and next Tuesday. The 234 quarterfinalists will be trimmed to 32 semifinalists on Jan. 29.

Live competition begins Feb. 4, and airs weekly through May 6. The winner is named May 7.

Idol fans should be impressed by the performers, the judges say.

"The talent is like three times better than it was last time," Randy says. "The talent is just so, so, so much better."

In a new twist, the performers can have the final word after Simon offers his brutally candid criticisms. They can go into a private TV room and "say to the camera whatever they think," says Ken Warwick, co-producer.

Simon says the desperation is "unbelievable" in the auditions.

"Every single person who came in . . . (is) absolutely desperate to get praise and to go through to the next round," Simon says. "No one was there to be insulted."

But, of course, they were. Simon says he can't help it.

"They make it easy. Very, very easy," he says.

Simon says he tried being nice once, and regretted it. As the competition last summer drew near the end, he clammed up rather than rip singer Nikki McKibbin because he would have to produce her record if she won the talent show.

"I will never, ever do that again," he says. "There were certain things I would have liked to have said . . . and didn't."

Like what?

"I would have told Nikki McKibbin to go back to the strip club," Simon says.

"As I watched her, I thought, `You are a better stripper than you are a singer.'

"I know that sounds rude, but that's what I felt ... I bit my tongue, and I wish I hadn't."

Despite what Simon says, viewers still will get the final say. The home audience again will vote on who will be eliminated.

Simon says he disagreed when viewers dumped Tamara Gray

"I would have loved to overturn the vote," he says. "But I think that's perhaps part of the excitement and the drama of this show - that your favorite can get kicked off, and that there's nothing you can do about it. It's frustrating."

Simon says most people who recognize him in public are polite.

"About 99 times out of 100 they're very supportive. I'm not drowning puppies here. I think people are smart enough to understand why I do it," he says.

Simon says these awful things because most people aren't very good singers.

"I don't think there are that many talented people out there. I don't. And these shows ... are proving the point," Simon says.

"I've always believed a show like this just proves why a superstar is a superstar."

E-mail jkiesewetter@enquirer.com