Neal Patrick Harris is a Guest Judge on American Idol

Did you pick a role? Were you the stern-but-kind taskmaster? Were you snarky?

I was more than a little intimidated by Mr. Cowell. It’s his show, you know, so when you're on that panel, I was wondering if it's impolite to disagree with him, on a business level. He could wander over to the producer and whisper something and you’re suddenly gone and Joe Jonas is back. But I asked him, "Is it okay if I disagree with you?" And he said, "Yes, do whatever you want. The one thing that you should know is that we're totally winging it. We have no idea what's going on. We have no idea what we’re doing here. We just judge the people as we see them." Which I kind of thought was a joke. In point of fact, it really isn't. I thought there was a lot more shady dealing going on in there. I thought they would say, "This is one that we held for two years, this is a ringer, we want to keep him in," or, "Go to town on this one." There's nothing going on. It's exactly like it is. There's the four of you on the table with the red Coca-Cola cups.

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But when someone sits outside for 11 hours in Dallas, Texas, to audition for American Idol, a show that they've seen, they know the beratement. They know the caustic judgment. And then they come out and they sing and they're terrible. And they seriously think that they're talented. They must be told that they're terrible. They don't need to be embarrassed. I would never tell someone that they're ugly, or that they should be ashamed of themselves. But it's now time for the family that's always told them that they're the best singer and that they could win it -- it's time to let them know that they should probably not audition for this show anymore. And I had no problem being the guy to say that.