Wow! That was awkward! Harry Connick, Jr. was not impressed when American Idol contestant Quentin Alexander criticized the show and called it “wack” — blasting the competitor as “highly disrespectful” and telling him to “go home!”
The heated moment occurred during the show’s live episode on Wednesday, April 15 after Alexander performed his rendition of Lenny Kravitz‘s “Are You Gonna Go My Way” and was joined on stage by show host Ryan Seacrest.
Alexander, 21, had a face like thunder, so Seacrest, 40, asked him what was up. “This sucks,” he said. “We’ve got two of the best vocalists, my best friend, sitting over there, this whole thing is wack, but I’m going to shut up right now.”
Trying to smooth things over, Seacrest offered Alexander some calming words of advice about his pals’ Joey Cook and Rayvon Owen‘s futures. “Let me tell you something, the bottom two, at the end, anybody could be saved with that vote,” he said.
But Connick, Jr., 47, wasn’t so forgiving. “I don’t understand that at all, I don’t get that. Are we on commercial?” he asked.
“No we’re live,” replied Seacrest as fellow guests Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban looked awkward.
“Good. Quentin, if it’s that wack, then you can always go home, because Idol is paying a lot of money to give you this experience and for you to say that to this hand that is feeding you right now, I think is highly disrespectful.”
Alexander immediately marched right up to the judge’s seats and got super close up to Connick, Jr.
“When I was saying this is wack, I wasn’t saying this (gestures to the whole stage) is wack. That is wack (pointing to his friends in the bottom two),” he said.
“What’s wack? It’s a competition,” retorted Connick, Jr.
“For my personal feelings, it sucks to see two people who I’ve grown to love go home,” answered Alexander. “That’s what I mean is wack. I’m not disrespecting this competition.”
“That wasn’t clear,” said the Hope Floats star.
“I’m glad I got to clarify it for you,” replied Alexander, not backing down one bit.
Watch the entire squirm-worthy moment in the clip above!
SPOLIER ALERT: Alexander’s best buddy Cook was, in the end, sent home from the show.
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