Simon Cowell 'wants Obama on Idol'

Simon Cowell has said that he wants US president Barack Obama to appear on an upcoming American Idol show.

The star told Absolute Radio that Obama was a "really cool guy" and praised his appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Cowell said: "We're trying to get him to do a show at the moment. I did get a name check from him tonight.

"He was on the Tonight Show talking about how everyone in Washington is a critic and then he said: 'Unfortunately they're all like Simon Cowell.' I'm not sure if it's a compliment or not."

He added: "[American Idol] is going fine, I think we're up to our third live show. It's one of my favourite series we've done in a long time - interesting people, some talent, so I think it's going to be good this year.

"We pinch ourselves every year when we're back for another season because when we first came over here seven or eight years ago, we genuinely thought we'd be on air for a couple of weeks, they'll kick us off and throw us out the country and that would be the end of it.

"So the fact that we're doing it years later is amazing."