Jeremy Bradley- Another season behind us, John Brunton, congratulations on another job well done.

John Brunton- Thank you.

JB- Give me one word to sum up this season.

John- (long pause) One word.

JB- Or one feeling, one emotion.

John- It's an interesting question. I think I would say "musicians" versus singers. I was blown away. We made a decision last season to allow people to audition that played. And it certainly played out last year. But this year, the people that came out to the show were all, without exception, people that were musicians. Not only did they play their instruments and play them bloody well, but they're also singer-songwriters. So I think our top 10 were really truly musicians. Of course the winner, Theo, you know, he's not an OK piano player, he's a fantastic piano player. And he's self-taught which is really something. I don't know if you've ever taken a piano lesson.

JB- I have. It's hard.

John- (laughing) It's no easy feat. And for this guy to figure it out in his head, you really have to have some God-given talents. So yeah, musicians would be my word.

JB- You mention it - year after year we're seeing that the contestants are getting better and better. The calibre of people is becoming better, you would say?

John- I would.

JB- Why is that? Is it that people are listening to the judges are saying in past seasons and brushing up and coming in prepared? What's going on?

John- I think there's a few different factors. I think when Canadian Idol started there was a lot of people in the media and in the audience that thought it was a karaoke contest. And then Kalan Porter comes out and he sells a couple hundred thousand records and Jacob Hoggard starts Hedley from the same season - season 2. And this kid, he's not being nominated for best new group, he's being nominated for best band in the country against Blue Rodeo, against the best bands we've got. The best of the best. He's now on his second record, Jacob is, and I think for a Canadian act this year he's sold about as many records as anybody has, and certainly in the rock and roll world, with the exception of maybe Nickelback. So I think that helps. It's a credibility thing. I think that we really, really started to try and push this singer-songwriter appeal and we're a nation of singer-songwriters going way back to Neil Young and Joni Mitchell right up to Sarah McLachlan and Nelly Furtado. I think all of a sudden those singer-songwriters that thought, "Oh, I'm going to go out to a cheesy TV show and I'm going to be doing cheesy dance numbers and I'm going to be snapping my fingers", you know, we stripped a lot of that out of our show. They have it as much in the U.S. show (American Idol) but in our show . . . I mean, the top 10 show with David Bowie. We're really trying to appeal to what we think is our constituency. There's a lot more rock in our show because Canadians like rock more than Americans do. I mean, we're a nation of rock.

JB- Comparing the Canadian show and American show, CI was the first to allow instruments, is that right?

John- Correct.

JB- Now American Idol has added a fourth judge this season. What do you deduce from this?

John- I think they watch our show very carefully. I think there's a few things we do on our show that they could learn from. I think our show has more heart and soul. I think we're more, oddly enough in some respects, more proudly Canadian. Maybe because we need to be, because the jingoistic nature of America doesn't need that. I do, always have felt, that it's nation building. Port Hood is on the national stage. Toronto and Vancouver and Montreal are always on the national stage. These people come from these small towns and all of a sudden they put them on the national stage. I think that's an interesting aspect of our show. I think we introduce the idols to the Canadian public in a better way. Maybe not in a better way, but we DO introduce them to the Canadian public…

JB- In a real way.

John- Yes, in a real way. And not a bullshit way, not a horse shit way, not a fluffy way. We tell the real story: who they are. You know, I'm a painter. Earl runs a backhoe. I came from four generations of fishermen - and not to hide that but to celebrate it.

JB- It's not a pity party as we often see on the American show with the "feel sorry for me" kind of stories in the (video) pack.

John- Yeah, I'm a coalminer's daughter and something whereas we'd say, "Congratulations, you're a coalminer's daughter!" The pride is something that makes the towns feel good, makes the competitors feel good. It's interesting what happened this year. On the first top 10 show we went back and did hometown tours - we've never done that before in the top 10 show, we've always waited until the top 3 show - and we were staggered at that point, at the top 10 show, how many people showed up. It was like previous years once they made it to the top 3. The number of people that came out in the communities - you know, when Earl went home, I mean shit, I think there was 10,000 people or something.

JB- And some of these towns have probably never even had a TV camera there, let alone a whole crew.

John- It really is true. I think what Theo said in one of the packs [interview clips] tonight was when you're whole community comes together it's great when that happens.

JB- It's Canada.

John- It is Canada. It's reflected in our show and I'm proud of that. Why we wouldn't produce the show the same way as the Americans is because we're Canadians! So we produce it the Canadian way. They might do some things better than we do but we do it our way and I'm not going to copy them.

JB- But you represent the country the best that the country can be represented.

John- I feel we represent it honestly and also with a sense of humour.