Connacht Tribune
Galwayman in search for stars at the helm of American Idol
Lifestyle – Senior Producer on hit TV show American Idol is Galwayman Jonathon Ridgard whose working day in Hollywood involves mixing with celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Harry Connick Jnr, Lionel Richie and Katie Perry. He tells Judy Murphy how his career path started the day his parents bought a camcorder when he was only seven or eight years old.
It’s a long way from Ballybane in Galway City to West Hollywood in California, but it’s a route Jonathon Ridgard has negotiated successfully, thanks to talent and hard work. The Senior Producer on the latest series of the hit TV show American Idol, which is due to air in America next month, took his first steps towards the entertainment industry when he was still a child in Ballybane.
“The family got a camcorder when I was seven or eight. That’s when I first started going around interviewing people,” he recalls.
After primary school in St Michael’s, Mervue, and secondary in St Joseph’s (the Bish), he left Galway aged 17. The fan of reality TV was determined to pursue his love of travelling, but otherwise, he didn’t know what he wanted to do in life.
Since then, Jonathon who just turned 36 last week, has clocked up serious TV credits in a career that has brought him to the UK, Canada, Asia, Australia and the USA.
He worked on three X Factor series in the UK, producing and directing interviews with Simon Cowell, Danni Minogue, Cheryl Cole and Louis Walsh. In Australia, he helped relaunch Australia’s Got Talent in 2010, when it gained its highest ever ratings. He moved to California in 2012, becoming a producer for Undercover Boss and winning an Emmy for that reality TV show.
Jonathon then went on to become Senior Producer for America’s Got Talent, which saw him based in New York for four months, producing packages in Radio City Music Hall for its live shows – a highlight, he says. There was a stint in Asia in 2014, as Consulting Producer in Asia’s Got Talent, which attracted audiences of one billion people across that continent.
Back in America, he became Senior Producer for American Idol in its final season on Fox TV and worked closely with judges, Jennifer Lopez, Harry Connick Jnr and Keith Urban. Lopez became so fond of him that she invited him to the opening week of her show in Las Vegas – where he had front-row seats and partied in her dressing room afterwards.
It’s a far cry from his early days in TV, as a helper on ITV’s talent show, Grease is the Word, in 2007.
Jonathon had just moved to London from Canada, having saved money so he could take time to decide his future. He got a gig helping with auditions for Grease is the Word, via a friend who was employed on the show. This was a Simon Cowell production and while it wasn’t a particular hit, Jonathon was offered a position as a full-time runner with the entertainment guru’s company. He eventually became Cowell’s personal runner. That led to him working on The X Factor and it grew from there.
Currently he’s Senior Producer on American Idol, which is being relaunched on the ABC network next month – it was on the Fox Network from 2002 to 2016.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.