AMERICAN IDOL - ABDUL: 'AMERICAN IDOL DESTROYS KIDS' DREAMS'

AMERICAN IDOL judge PAULA ABDUL has slammed the talent show for "destroying the souls" of aspiring singers. The 45-year-old singing star - who appears on the reality TV series alongside music mogul Simon Cowell - admits she would never have appeared on a talent show to launch her career. She says, "I don't know that I'd have it in me to put myself out there like that. It's excruciating, soul destroying. "Celebrities comes up to me and say: 'Thank God I've made it. I'd hate to have come up through the ranks of the X Factor or American Idol'."