It’s been announced that Ellen DeGeneres has been hired as the new fourth judge for the upcoming season of American Idol and I’m both shocked and, I guess, a little pleased.
First of all, it’s a well-known fact that Ellen loves the show and watches it religiously. 
Secondly, I loved her as a guest judge on this past season of So You Think You Can Dance (she had the Top 10 contestants from Season 5 on her daytime talk show this week and it was fantastic – watch it!!!).
Thirdly, she will definitely attract an audience and hopefully she will …read more

American Idol judge, Paula Abdul, has been invited to stay on the show.  According to People.com, Abdul said:  “I’ve been invited to stay the duration of the show, however long it lasts.”
She described their little group as a “dysfunctional family of sorts” and added that she is “the nurturing mom, Simon [Cowell]’s the disapproving dad, and Randy [Jackson]’s the cool brother.  It’s been an interesting journey. It’s something that I’ll always would want to be a part of.”
While details about an actually renewed contract have yet to emerge, I do think this is a positive sign that the judging …read more

I know a lot of media outlets are reporting that the American Idol judges are set to come back for the ninth season of the show but when I looked at their sources for that information, I couldn’t go along with it.

I’m glad I didn’t fall for that (even though it might be true) since E! Online is saying that Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and newest judge, Kara DioGuardi, are still negotiating.  Apparently, Paula’s agent said: "The RadarOnline info is incorrect. Negotiations are continuing. You probably won’t hear anything until closer to September, when judges are …read more

American Idol cutie, David Archuleta, recently sent out a message to the judges on the popular singing competition which I first spotted on the J-14 website (thanks to Nikki of Junior Celebs!). 

It was, of course, an adorable little video with David telling Randy Jackson that he misses all the “dawg” comments, thanking Paula Abdul for all the nice (but weird) things she said about him, telling Simon Cowell that he’s very cool even though a lot of people are afraid of him and, finally, thanking Kara DioGuardi for working with him on his album.  What a sweetie!

American Idol’s newest judge, Kara DioGuardi, was spotted leaving the set of Live with Regis and Kelly in New York City.
She’s quite fit, isn’t she?  I wasn’t sure what I thought of her before but I’m really starting to warm up to the idea of her being the fourth judge.   I think she’s going to bring something fresh to the show which, I hope, saves it from the doldrums.  Click on the images below to enlarge. 
Photo by Christopher Peterson/BuzzFoto.com