'American Idol' may feature past losers

NEW YORK, Feb. 11 (UPI) -- One of the producers of Fox's "American Idol," Nigel Lythgoe, has proposed that the U.S. network bring back some favorite losers for a special episode.

During an interview, Lythgoe told reporters he had proposed a change to the show's previously announced songwriting competition. He said he would like to bring back some of the show's popular non-winners and possibly make a special episode out of it, Zap2it.com reported.

"They're talking about doing a song competition on the Web and have people write songs for the next 'American Idol' finale, because whenever they come out and sing the song at the American finale, the only bloody criticism Randy Jackson can do is 'Oh, I don't like that song,'" Lythgoe said. "Well, that's not very helpful. They're gonna be putting it out next week and trying to sell it and there's you saying 'I don't like the song.'"

Lythgoe said he would like to see Ace Young, Vonzell and Tamyra Gray and Constantine Maroulis as well as six others come on the show and sing the Web-submitted songs.