ETAA: Paula Abdul was just interviewed on the John Jay and Rich show out of Arizona. Perez Hilton has the interview here. Paula sounds drunk! She doesn’t seem thrilled about the new addition. She says Simon will probably have the last word in the event of a tie during the Audition rounds. She hasn’t met Kara yet since the news broke.
BREAKING! Kara DioGuardi’s interview with Ryan Seacrest
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. americanidol.com interview HERE.
Ryan Seacrest
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on his radio show today that songwriter Kara DioGuardi would be joining the American Idol judging panel!
Ryan is broadcasting live from New York City this morning as Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell begin the 3rd round auditions. He’ll be interviewing them today, as well as the NEW 4th judge, Kara DioGuardi.
Kara is a songwriter who has written tunes for several Idols, including Taylor Hicks, Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood. Other artists who have recorded her songs include Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, Pink, Avril Lavigne, Britney Spears, Hannah Montana, Jonas Brothers, Faith Hill, Santana, and Celine Dion. She’s collaborated with Justin Timberlake, Chad Kroeger, Danja, Jeffrey Steele, The Underdogs, and David Hodges amongst many others. She’s currently writing songs/collaborating with David Cook and David Archuleta–the publishing company she co-owns produced “Crush”, in fact. If that isn’t enough, she sings too…
Kara will be sitting in front of the contestants for the first time tomorrow (Tuesday) when 3rd round auditions begin in New York City.
ETA: Kara is being interviewed right now. She says she found out she got the job 3 days ago. As a New Yorker, she says it’s hard for her not to be honest. She’s watched the show to see who she’ll be writing for–she’s written for 3 of the winners. She’s flattered that she’s been asked to join. She knows Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul–who was one of the first people to believe in her. Kara plans to be tough, but nurturing when needed. She’s met Simon Cowell briefly. She’d like to sit between Simon and Paula, but she doesn’t know where she’ll be sitting yet…She wants an Idol to be unique, and instantly recognizable when you hear them on the radio.
What do I think?
Kara upending the little family unit Randy, Paula and Simon have established over the past 7 years? Considering how lame, predictable and in some cases incompetent (coughpaulacough) the commentary from that table has become, I’m ready for a change. Ditching Randy and Paula would have been interesting. But in lieu of a change that drastic, Ill take a 4th judge. The atmosphere will be a little wonky at first, but think about how interesting those first few uncomfortable weeks will be? Ryan will step in like the pro that he is to smooth things over, but I’m expecting at least a few fun water-cooler moments. Plus, introducing new blood could force the others to raise their game… You know, maybe Paula will be forced to stay awake and Randy will learn a few new vocabulary words.
As far as Simon is concerned, I can’t believe this is one of the franchise saving ideas he’s been bragging about. I’m hoping for lots of pouting and ill-mannered behavior from his side of the table. Serves him right!
Listening to her interview with Ryan, I expect she’ll be tougher than Paula, more knowledgeable than Randy, and more diplomatic than Simon. I am cautiously optimistic…
He did Sarah. I’ll have to dig the article up…It was in the Headlines thread.
Let’s keep it cool, babies. And on topic. Thank you.
Oh, I was confident that he did. I just was curious where. Since I can’t read here from work, I miss a lot of stuff if it’s not BIG news. If you remember approximately when, I’ll go find the article so you don’t have to. I actually am curious to read it. That wasn’t sarcasm, promise.
mj – you should have got the producer’s role!
Well, PJ already read my mind and stole my comment. United in our Molten Hot Lava Randy Hate!
I’m okay with a 4th judge for now, even though I have no idea who this woman is. No one can make less sense than Paula, and no one could possibly be more wind-up-toy one-note than Randy. So, this has to be an improvement, right?
After thinking about this for a while, I’m hopeful that this move means that TPTB heard the grumblings of the fans about last year and the judging. Not wanting to upset the apple cart completely (or not being able to get out of the existing contracts) they decided to bring into the mix a current, credentialed woman who might help force the others return to the level of discourse of the earlier seasons.
If you watch AI Rewind, more often than not, the judges made sense and actually made useful criticisms. Randy was capable of more than “dawg” and “pitchy”; Paula could manage a declarative sentence or even two; and Simon actually put some thought behind his put-downs. If we could return to that level, and they could make me believe they were actually listening to what was going on in front of them again, I’d be a much happier fan .
I listened the interview with Ryan and I ´m excited again. She sounded self-confident but didn ´t take herself too seriously and she was quite witty. She seems to like all the other judges but probably isn ´t afraid to disagree with them.
The judging panel definitely needed a change. The chemistry between Randy, Paula and Simon had died and when it visited from beyond it was a slow zombi.
I am glad to see there are others, like Rea who realize the old chemistry just isn’t there as before. Many weeks the judges seemed bored. Who will ever forget what Paula did to Jason? That was a badweek. So I am looking forward to seeing what Kara can do.
I detect a little bit of jealousy here. The only female judge that Paula felt totally at ease with was Olivia Newton-John. We shall see..