Simon Cowell takes a pride in his work

If someone took an already damaged person, and dragged them into a city centre and humiliated them, you'd expect police to get involved.

If it happens on national TV, everyone gives Simon Cowell money. How does that work, exactly?

Nikki McKibbin has been telling Us magazine about how far the duty of care on American Idol goes. It's not that far:

"I came out of Idol with a lack of self-confidence," McKibbin tells the new issue of Us Weekly. "I think I had my first solo in school when I was 5, and I got more as I got older: That's the biggest compliment in choir. I had never been told I wasn't good enough. Having to hear it for so many weeks from Simon Cowell killed me inside. I couldn't get the s--t he had said to me out of my head."

She continued: "It drove me deeper into my depression. I wouldn't say that this was Simon's fault. It just added to the addict that I already was."

"We were heavily chaperoned, but I would buy vodka and sneak it into the refrigerator on the bottom floor," McKibbin tells Us. "If I wasn't too exhausted, I'd have one or two drinks."

Presumably that's Cowell's caring strategy - "if we can tire the addicts out, they might not have enough energy to get the lids off the bottles or find a mirror..."