'American Idol' Judges on 'Emotional' Hollywood Week and Being Tougher on Contestants (Exclusive)

Hollywood Week is here on season 22 of American Idol -- and the judges couldn't be more excited!

"We're reluctant to keep saying it gets better and better every year because it sounds like [a cliché] and we're just trying to falsely pump up the show. But I mean, we're not. There's a lot of great talent to choose from," Luke Bryan raved.

The country singer and fellow judges Katy Perry and Lionel Richie, as well as host Ryan Seacrest, sat down with ET's Denny Directo ahead of the Hollywood shows, and Perry admitted that she thinks the high quality talent pool this year is due to the judges being harder on the contestants than they have in past seasons.

"We were hard out there on the road," she recalled. "Our show producers said that we were harder than we've ever been... and that means that the show is better than it's ever been."

"It's the natural standard that we have," Perry added of putting pressure on the contestants. "There's only a few months between when we wrap the show and start again... So we really have a fresh memory in our heads of what the Top 10 looks like. So maybe with that in mind we're like, '[They] have to be Top 10 because we know what that looks like.'"

The judges even admit that they get tougher as the auditions progress -- so extra apologies to Nashville, which was their last stop on the audition tour.

"It gets tricky, because at that point, some kids that we would do a dice roll on early, [we won't towards the end]," Bryan shared. "We don't want to send them out here, put them through all this, knowing that they're really [on the edge]."

"Talent meets preparation meets luck -- those are the three things," Perry agreed. "Some of these contestants in the beginning, they get the luck part because we were like, 'Oh, we let that person in, but maybe we wouldn't have done it [later]."

This season also featured the return of the "platinum ticket," which allowed a singer to advance to the second week in Hollywood, as well as pick their duet partner.

"We did three platinum ticket holders," Bryan shared. "I think, historically, our platinum ticket holders haven't gone the distance, but I feel like this year we've got a real good shot for one of them to get very, very high."

And the judges also said there's plenty more talent beyond those three that could vie to become the newest American Idol.

"I feel like last year, there were two on our minds the whole time, but this year I actually think there's like 10," Perry marveled.

"There's a lot," Richie agreed. "We're not exaggerating."

That makes saying goodbye all the more difficult, however, and the judges admit that this season, Hollywood Week has some heartbreaking moments.

"It gets really emotional for us," Richie admitted. "We get to Hollywood, we realize, 'Oh my god, this one, this one, this one are out of their league.... But as it gets involved, we find ourselves now growing emotional, trying to figure out, how do we let them go?"

Ultimately, the show gives the judges a chance to jumpstart the careers of singers who want to follow in their footsteps -- which is the rewarding side of the reality competition.

"We've got one kid from Ocala, Florida... He's so new and young and just an aw shucks, good old boy," Bryan reflected. "Anytime I see a kid like that, it really makes me think of how I would have auditioned when I was 18 or 19."

American Idol airs Sundays at 8 p.m. PT/ET on ABC.

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