American Idol is adding a brand new 4th judge to the judging table when American Idol premieres for its 8th season in January. Kara DioGuardi, a songwriter for the likes of Faith Hill and Kelly Clarkson, has signed on to join the reality show.

“For the past seven seasons, Paula has had to endure the experience of being the only woman at the judges’ table,” said Mike Darnell, president, alternative programming of Fox, in a statement.

“With Kara by her side, Paula has some backup and now there is going to be a lot more ‘girl power’ on the show,” Darnell said.

I am curious if it might heat up some of the sexual tension between Paula and Simon, or if Kara will try and make her move on being the one fans want to see Simon with.

“We are turning the heat up on ‘Idol’ this year and are thrilled to welcome Kara to the judges’ table,” said creator and executive producer Simon Fuller in a statement. “She is a smart, sassy lady, and one of America’s most successful songwriters. We know she will bring a new level of energy and excitement to the show.”

I don’t know if this change is a good thing, as I love the dynamic between Paula, Randy and Simon. However, I suspect she will get canned if the fans hate her or if the chemistry just isn’t there. Overall, I am not a fan of having a new judge… maybe for the audtions, but for the whole show as well? I am prepared to hate her!

Source

American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe shut down any rumors about Britney Spears guest judging on the upcoming season of American Idol… because he thinks the popwreck isn’t well enough!

“I would have had Britney Spears last year when I thought she was trying to get it all back together again,” Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe told Usmagazine.com in a conference call Thursday.

“Britney, at this moment in time, I don’t think is well enough to do anything,” he continued. “I think she needs looking after. I think she needs to pull herself together.”

Lythgoe added that Spears is an “exceptionally talented girl” but “needs taking care of right now.”

I could only imagine what this unpredictable popwreck would do on a live show!

Source

Guess Jessica Sierra hasn’t learned her lesson from the last time she was arrested, because she was arrested again in the wee hours of the morning and charged with disorderly intoxication and obstructing or opposing an officer. And to top it off, she was also charged with two felonies - possession of cocaine and felony battery. Sierra, who made the American Idol top ten back in 2005 was on probation after assaulting someone by throwing a glass at their head.

Ironically enough, Sierra is also in the Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, a new VH1 show… we’re guessing she didn’t do so well!

Gotta give a girl credit, being nine months pregnant and auditioning for American Idol. But what’s a girl to do when she is just about to have her turn and the contractions start? If she is Antoria Gillan, she just keeps waiting her turn!

A 9-months-pregnant Antoria Gillon arrived at Texas Stadium in hopes of her one chance at super-stardom, and went into labor while waiting with more than 13,000 other “Idol” wannabes.

However, it wasn’t enough to stop her from going through with her audition.

Fighting off contractions, Antoria went before the judges and sang her best — and even made it through to the next round.

After her tryout, she was taken to a local hospital where she gave birth to a bouncing baby boy weighing 6 lbs., 7 oz., who she promptly named Jamil Labarron Idol McCowan.

“I didn’t want to turn around after being there all those hours in the heat with people pushing,” Gillon said. “So my friend helped me walk through the line. I wasn’t going to leave without singing. I gave it my all through the contractions. They were back to back and getting harder and harder but I was more than willing to have my baby right there. I wasn’t leaving without my golden ticket to the next round.”

Damn, you go girl!

Source

Remember a couple of years ago when everyone was wondering and speculating about why Mario Vasquez bailed on American Idol shortly after being named to the top twelve? The excuse was “Family reasons”, but of course everyone knew that wasn’t the real reason. Well, I don’t seem to recall hearing this as the reason… that he sexually harassed a male assistant production accountant by exposing himself in the bathroom, among other things.

That assistant, Magdaleno Olmos, has now filed a complaint against American Idol and Vasquez, claiming he was wrongfully dismissed after complaining of the unwelcome advances. And supposedly, this was the reason why Mario really left the show.

Vasquez, whose self-titled debut went bust shortly after its release last September, could not be reached for comment. Olmos’ complaint paints a graphic picture of the 29-year-old singer’s alleged misdeeds, accusing Vasquez of tailing Olmos into a bathroom and “masturbating” in front of him, as well as touching “plantiff’s chest, plaintiff’s stomach underneath his shirt and plaintiff’s genitals as Vasquez attempted to unzip plaintiff’s pants.”

Olmos claimed he related the incident to his supervisor, Eric LaPointe, who responded that such claims were “crazy” and that Olmos was imagining things. Per the suit, LaPointe said that if Olmos didn’t stop complaining, “he’d cry [himself] out of a job.”

In any case, wow. I never liked Mario, he came across as a bit too sleazy for my liking, but wow.

Source

I wasn’t the only one thinking it odd that Katharine McPhee never appeared on the sixth season of American Idol, despite many of her fellow fifth season finalists singing during the results shows throughout the season.

“Katharine called them herself, trying to get on the [finale],” a “source close to the singer” told Us Weekly on Wednesday.

The call was apparently unsuccessful, as McPhee did not appear during last week’s sixth-season Idol finale. Of course, McPhee’s snub probably wouldn’t have been as bad if many of the rest of Idol’s fifth-place finalists hadn’t been featured throughout Idol’s sixth season run.

While McPhee was nowhere to be seen during Idol’s sixth season, seventh-place finisher Kellie Pickler performed “I Wonder,” a single from her debut album “Small Town Girl,” during Idol’s sixth-season Top 16 semifinalists results show and third-place finisher Elliott Yamin performed “Wait for You,” a song from his recently released self-titled debut album, during the sixth-season’s penultimate results show.

Then, during last week’s final set of sixth-season Idol broadcasts, fourth-place fifth-season finisher Chris Daughtry performed “Home” — the ballad that also served as the background music Idol’s sixth-season eliminations — during the last Tuesday’s final sixth-season performance episode and fifth-season champ Taylor Hicks also performed “Heaven Knows,” a track from his self-titled debut album, during Idol’s Wednesday night sixth-season finale.

I would have much rather seen Katharine than Kellie Pickler, although Kellie’s new chest size certainly brought a lot of attention to the show she appeared on. Does this mean Katharine needs to get a boob job if she wants to perform next season on Idol?

Source

Did you TiVo the season finale of American Idol? If you did, it means you missed Jordin Sparks being crowned the American Idol winner!

Fox has apologized for Wednesday night’s broadcast of American Idol’s sixth season finale extending beyond its scheduled two-hour run, Broadcasting & Cable reported Thursday, with the network offering the somewhat lame excuse that it was due to the finale airing live. However the mea culpa no doubt comes as little condolence to viewers who recorded the finale using a DVR, as they missed 17-year-old Glendale, AZ-native Jordin Sparks being announced as the youngest winner in Idol’s history, which occurred at 10:03PM ET.

“We’re sorry that DVR users may have missed the conclusion of the American Idol broadcast,” a spokesperson for Fox said in a statement, according to Broadcasting & Cable. “It was always our intention to bring the show in on time, but just as with any live sports, variety, awards or entertainment event, there is no way to absolutely guarantee that the show will end exactly on the hour. Fox and the producers apologize to those viewers who were inconvenienced.”

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why they aren’t turning this into a huge marketing opportunity, with a season recap featuring never before scene footage of Jordin and other finalists, ending with Ryan Seacrest revealing the winner, and the rest of us - who watched it live - also getting to see Jordin actually finish singing the song after the win, as well as reaction of the judges seeing her win, rather than cutting it off to go to local news as those of us who watched in live saw.

Source

We’ve got some spoilers about the song choices by Blake and Jordin for the season finale of American Idol!

Rumor has it that Blake will (not surprisingly) reprise “You Give Love a Bad Name,” his showstopper from Bon Jovi week, while Jordin will bring back “Broken Wing,” which she originally sang during country week.

Blake’s new song is apparently Maroon 5’s “She Will Be Loved’ (making it three Maroon 5 songs in two weeks on the show) and Jordin will attempt Christina Aguilera’s “Figher” (good luck on that one!) If they turn out to be true they are interesting choices indeed.

No one yet knows what the new song written for the finale will be yet, but we will keep you posted if we hear anything before airtime!

Source

[aads]american idol[/aads]

If you are not a fan of American Idol, you just got an excuse to watch the season finale of the hit reality show this week. TVGuide is reporting the favorite American Idol judge broke her nose this weekend.

Amazingly, this week’s American Idol just got even more TiVo-worthy. A spokesperson for Paula Abdul tells TV’s Extra that over the weekend, Idol’s erstwhile Pollyanna tripped while trying to avoid her chihuahua, Tulip, and as a result, broke her nose. (Aren’t you supposed to tiptoe past the Tulip, as the song goes?)

Talk about bad timing! I wonder if she’ll be all bandaged up… or even all drugged up on pain killers. I would hate to see her miss judging the final episode though!

Source
[aads]american idol[/aads]

American Idol voters finally had enough of the sex show that was Antonella Barba, and booted her along with three others from the final voting before the top twelve competition begins.

“American Idol” slimmed down the competition Thursday night, leaving 12 finalists to compete for the ultimate prize — a record contract. Antonella Barba, Sabrina Sloan, Jared Cotter and Jason “Sundance” Head were cast off by the viewer voting, which drew about 37 million calls and text messages.

The performers who made the cut were Blake Lewis, LaKisha Jones, Chris Sligh, Jordin Sparks, Phil Stacey, Melinda Doolittle, Brandon Rogers, Gina Glocksen, Chris Richardson, Stephanie Edwards, Haley Scarnato and Sanjaya Malakar.

Wonder if she’ll be taking that Girls Gone Wild job offer now? $250,000 is a lot for a college girl.

I admit, I am happy she is gone… saves all the drama from the real top twelve and all the speculation about whether she was there because of her singing or there because of her {cough} other talents.

Source

OK, why do people like this girl for any reason other than the fact she has numerous sex pics floating around the internet about her? And as Simon Cowell predicted, Antonella Barba’s gone as far as she can go… and that is being generous since if it wasn’t for those explicit shots, she probably would have been ousted from American Idol a week ago.

But now Girls Gone Wild wants to hire her to be their, um, host?

Francis says: “Antonella Barba is an unbelievably sexy girl who obviously knows how to have a good time. Why are people being ridiculed and punished for being sexual? It’s ridiculous.”

Barba most likely won’t be able to accept that offer until after getting voted off the show, which probably won’t happen this week. She has a large support base, despite being a mediocre singer.

Mediocre is right. Let’s hope that tonight’s results show is the last we ever see of Antonella, with her clothes on or with them off!

Source

Just incase you missed the promo… or have decided not to watch American Idol until they hit the top twelve, Carrie Underwood will be performing on tonight’s results show. She will perform her new single “Wasted”.

The results show will air at 8pm tonight on FOX.

Well, Idol producers seem to think it is sad that friends will go and post pics once that person has some degree of success, which seems to have happened to Antonella Barba once she passed Hollywood week. That said, she has definitely hit the top of the list of the most popular American Idol thanks to everyone searching for those supposed sex shots of Antonella pleasuring a guy with her, um, mouth.

Whatever 20-year-old singer Antonella Barba expected to gain from auditioning for the star-making machine “American Idol,” it was likely fame, not infamy. But Barba — until last month a Catholic University student from Point Pleasant with a nice voice — is now at the center of a perfect storm of celebrity and technology, sexuality and morality.

Photos of Barba topless, hands covering her breasts, and on the toilet, appeared on the Internet just as she emerged as a semifinalist on television’s top-rated show earlier this month. Over the weekend, racier photos materialized, including several shots of a beautiful brunette performing a sex act on a man who is not identified.

But supposedly, the infamous sex shots aren’t Antonella, although there has been a ton of fans doing side-by-side comparisons of the pics with known pics of Antonella.

So what do you think, did she or didn’t she?

Source

Remember what a monster hit Daniel Powter’s song Bad Day became after American Idol began using it as the exit song last season? Well, this time around they are hoping to project some of that onto Chris Daughtry - a former American Idol contestant.

The song in question - Home - was actually written by Daughty before he was even a contestant on the show. But because he is signed to the official Idol label, RCA/19, that means American Idol financially benefits from just how successful the song becomes… something they weren’t able to do with the Warner Brothers signed Daniel Powter’s success from the show.

Back in October, Pirie had a meeting with “Idol” exec producer and 19 exec Nigel Lythgoe. Given Lythgoe’s role in helping launch Daughtry, Pirie figured he’d want to hear some tracks from the group’s upcoming album.

“I brought a rough version of ‘Home’ and played it for Nigel. He called up Simon Fuller right away, and they both agreed right away that the song had the sentiment to be the perfect ‘Idol’ exit song,” Pirie told Daily Variety. “It seemed to fit perfectly.”

Although, I can’t be the only one to wonder, why are they using an Idol reject for the song instead of a winner? Granted, Daughtry had a huge cult following on the show and while he made it as far as he did, he still wasn’t the American Idol of his season.

Source

JLo herself has apparently signed on to appear on American Idol this season, and she may be bringing her hubby Mrs. Jennifer Lopez, er, I mean Marc Anthony along for the ride.

According to American publication Star, Anthony could also be joining his wife on the show. A source explains, “It was Jennifer and Marc who approached American Idol, not the other way around.”

Isn’t it nice of her to try and raise her husband’s career by scoring a gig on American Idol… because you know he wouldn’t be landing the gig by himself.

JLo will make her American Idol appearance on April 11th.

Source

Ok, I admit I like Michael Jackson’s music. And whether he did or didn’t in regards to all those court cases, I couldn’t help but think that American Idol wouldn’t be the best place for the Jacko to pop up on his supposed career comeback. Perhaps American Idol was testing the waters by leaking a possible guest, but the producers have confirmed that Jackson won’t be making an appearance on the show.

Nigel Lythgoe has officially dispelled the rumors on an interview with TVWeek.

Mr. Ross: One of the other things that the fans asked me to bring up, it’s been mentioned in a couple of the sites, is a little excitement building that maybe we’ll have an appearance with a man known for his glove, Mr. Michael Jackson. Anything you can tell us along those lines?
Mr. Lythgoe: No. It’s not true, is what I can say, just not true.

Mr. Ross: So you’re saying we just won’t see him this year, or is that something that’s just up in the air still?
Mr. Lythgoe: No, we won’t be seeing him.

Mr. Ross: Well thank you for putting an end to that.
Mr. Lythgoe: Yeah, I much prefer, rather than teasing anybody with it, that the fact is he will not be on “American Idol.”

The latest rumor is that Sean Michel, who looked more like Fidel Castro than American Idol when he audition - impressively - in Memphis with a Johnny Cash song. But now the rumormill is buzzing with the fact Sean got disqualified for refusing to cut his hair and get a shave.

If you missed it, here is the video of his audition and mini interview during the Memphis audition show.

Since Hollywood week for the contestants has already been and gone, I have to ask why would they have shown his audition last week if he had been disqualified? No reason to bring about bad publicity for booting someone from the show based on looks. Undisclosed criminal records, yes, but because you look like Bigfoot? Nope.

He also did a recent interview that seems to imply he definitely was at Hollywood Week.

In fact, for Sean Michel, the best part of the American Idol experience has been getting to know the other contestants, and seeing what God has done in their lives. According to Sean, the American Idol auditions are “like summer camp. You’re with these people all the time, 24/7, hanging out, and you become really close friends, just like that.”

As much as he enjoyed the people, it seems that Sean has experienced some frustration with the show’s musical directions. He wished that they could, “just trust the fact that what’s in my heart will be good enough. You’ve got to trust the artist as an artist.” He also found some difficulty in “getting used to what life is like in front of cameras. I can’t stand t.v. cameras.”

Michel is under a confidentiality clause that prohibits him from speaking (smart thinking American Idol, if he does get the boot!) but he has said he still has his long hair and beard.

So what do you think? I suppose in the end, Paula, Randy and Simon could just decide not to pick Michel based on his looks… after all, it is their right to pick the ones who have the potential to be the next American Idol. And I have to admit, Sean Michel just doesn’t look like an Idol.

Joss Stone - who you would think would be looking for all the listeners she can get with her new album coming out next month - has turned down an offer to guest judge on American Idol because she thinks the judges are too mean.

The Devon-born soul singer was invited by Simon Cowell to appear as a guest judge on the hit programme American Idol but has turned down the offer. “I find these shows far too cruel,” she says. “Music should be allowed to develop naturally.”

Considering how the show can make super celebs by those who appear, she made an interesting choice, and hopefully one she won’t regret if her new album tanks! How else can you get yourself and your music in front of the multi-millions that American Idol attracts?

Source

Diana Ross told David Latterman during her appearance that she will be acting as a mentor on this season of the popular reality show American Idol. No word when she will appear on the show, but it will be a while before she is seen since we still have weeks to go before we finish up with the audition process.

American Idol airs Tuesdays and Wednesdays on FOX (just incase you are one of the three people that doesn’t know that!)

It didn’t take long for the first scandal of the new season of American Idol to come out… at least the first scandal involving the contestants.

Before he wowed Simon, Paula and Randy during last night’s “American Idol,” Thomas Daniels took his fair share of punishment from real judges over several criminal charges, including drunk driving.

TMZ has unearthed legal documents which reveal that in 2004, Daniels was convicted of DUI in Clackamas, Oregon. The 21-year-old, who was the first wannabe to get the green light from the “AI” crew on last night’s show, pled guilty and was sentenced to a one-year alcohol diversion program and a $680 fine. Daniels also attended eight AA meetings and saw a counselor once a week for two months. After the completing his DUI sentence, the incident was wiped from Daniels’ record.

As we know, if contestants come clean with their criminal past on their applications, they usually get the green light to go ahead because they were honest and upfront about it. However, those contestants who lie about their past usually get unceremoniously booted from the show because they did the crime and then lied about it to producers.

Time will tell what will happen to Thomas Daniels and his Idol dreams.