Q&A: 'CMT's Next Superstar' Judge Matt Serletic

7:00 AM PDT 6/10/2011 by Shirley Halperin

The veteran producer and former head of Virgin Records talks about finalists Steven Lawson and Matt Mason and how it felt to tell eight others they've been dropped. Says Serletic: "It's not something I relish, but it's part of being an executive in the music industry."

The newest inductee to the ever-growing talent show club is cable TV’s fledgling CMT’s Next Superstar, which combines Top Chef-like challenges (playing for troops returning from Afghanistan, having to win over rowdy bar patrons) with the kind of tear-jerking, heel-kicking performances that come straight out of the American Idol rulebook.