‘American Idol’ Contestant Reveals Why She Would Never Try Out Again

Heavy and Getty Jackie Tohn and Simon Cowell.

“American Idol” contestant Jackie Tohn says she would never try out for the show again, and she revealed that Simon Cowell, “ripped” her “to shreds” when she was on the program, according to Us Weekly and her comments on Nick Viall’s podcast.

Jackie Tohn did characterize her time on the show as “great,” Us Weekly reported. But she said: “I would never try out again, nor could I, because I think you could do it twice and you can’t be old, right?”

According to Us Weekly, Tohn competed on season 8 of the show, which Kris Allen won. She was in the Top 36 during the 2009 season, Us reported. Tohn blamed getting cut partly on Simon Cowell’s “brutal criticism,” Us Reported. She is currently starring in the Netflix show “Nobody Wants This.”

She further told Nick Viall on his “The Viall Files” podcast, “I think one of the major reasons I got eliminated was because he ripped me to the shreds after that. It was so (expletive) cool. I know it was a weird, charmed experience until it wasn’t.”

Jackie Tohn Admitted That She Is Too Old for ‘American Idol’ Anyway

Tohn said in the interview with Us Weekly that she’s past the age cut-off anyway.

“First of all, I can’t. I’m 110 and I think the age drop off is the cutoff is 28,” she told Us Weekly.

“Funny enough, when I tried out for the first time when I was 28, I was the age cutoff. I was deada** the age of some of the 15-year-old contestants’ moms. And I was like, ‘Hello, do you have a cane?’ It was too much,” she said in the interview.

Tohn continued, “That was a really weird year, where instead of picking 24, they were changing the format, they added Kara DioGuardi [as a judge], so it was Simon, Paula [Abdul], Randy [Jackson] and they added Kara.”

“So many of us just got that hatchet,” she told Us. “My American Idol experience was so interesting and bizarre, but it was fun. That Top 36 (expletive) us because … if there was a 24 and then two off per week, I have in very good faith I would have made the Top 24 and then I wouldn’t have been gone so quickly.”

Jackie Tohn Told Nick Viall That ‘Nobody Wants This’ Is ‘Definitely a Different Level for Me’

GettyUS actress Jackie Tohn.

Tohn told Viall, of “Nobody Wants This,” that she had never been “part of something that has been called a cultural juggernaut before.”

“It’s really cool,” she added. “It’s definitely a different level for me. I feel the difference.”

“The show is like shockingly good,” Viall said, adding that he “binged” it in a day and a half. Tohn said the business is “crazy.”

Tohn also spoke to People about criticism of her character, which People reported some people feel stereotypes Jewish women.

“It doesn’t bother me because I see a lot of myself in her, so I don’t feel like she’s a caricature and I don’t feel I made any choices that I don’t stand by,” Tohn told People. “I’m a Jewish woman, not offended by the depictions of the show. And anyone who doesn’t feel the same way, that’s okay. That’s their prerogative.”

She added, “This is a show that is highlighting Judaism in what I think is a lovely light. I mean, there’s this handsome, cool rabbi, this woman who is considering converting for love. I just think the representation is there and the love is there. And I’m so proud to be Jewish and so proud to be on a show that even revolves around Judaism.”