“American Idol” may have yet to kick off on the tube but the Fox’s reality show judges have been making noises. Singer-producer Harry Connick Jr. is slowly earning a reputation as another Simon Cowell on the popular singing competition.

According to Enstars, Connick has apparently been sounding cruel to the AI contestants.

The new “Idol judge has made quite some feedback to a group trying to get tickets to Hollywood.

"If this were a football game, you lost this game. Technically, all four of you should be cut," Connick said, according to Enstars.

Connick has apparently sounded more like Simon when he declared that a group “should try singing in unison as they were ‘all out of tune anyway.’”

When one of the contenders had attempted to defend a group, promising “it won’t happen again,” the show’s former mentor quipped saying, “It may not.”

Connick is becoming known for his judging style described as “tell it like it is.” Enstars noted that the “Idol” judge simply wanted to give the show’s contestants “the truth.” He said that telling the “Idol” contestants what he really thinks of their performance will do them more good than harm as they are expected to help them in the future.

"As a kid, when my teachers would critique me and it happened every day for years and years and years. You develop a tolerance for it, especially when it's right and when it's sincere and when it helps you," Enstars quoted Connick as saying.

It should not come as a surprise that Connick is compared to Simon Cowell, known for his brutal honesty on the reality show he first introduced to America and the world more than a decade ago.

He claimed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he and the British mogul has nothing in common.

Connick emphasized, "Simon and I don't have a whole lot in common. I think he was fantastic, but he's very different...You can't tell people that you didn't like it and not tell them why."

Season 13 of the “American Idol” airs on Fox Wed, Jan. 15, 2013. The show will be back on air with returning judges, Keith Urban and Jennifer Lopez. Connick is joining Urban and Lopez on the judging panel this season.

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