Here are a couple of recent items from the New York Post regarding the American Idol Judges rumors.
Nicki Minaj’s “American Idol” contract is almost signed, but her deal with Pepsi is holding it up. Pepsi sponsors her tour, but “Idol” is sponsored by Coca–Cola, so they’re hashing out how to get around the sticky cola issue. We’re told “Idol” execs want to announce Minaj as a judge as soon as possible, before the auditions start filming in the next week or two. Sources say producers “want to see that drama between Nicki and Mariah Carey. It’ll make for good TV.” It seems there will now be four judges — country singer Randy Travis was in consideration until he had his “epic booze-fueled meltdown.” Now Keith Urban and Brad Paisley are in talks. “Idol” producers had hoped to get Enrique Iglesias, but, “He’s a private guy and doesn’t want to expose his life to the show,” our source said.
Hm. This smells like old, recycled news to me. The Pepsi issues were ironed out, I thought. And Brad Paisley said no because he wants more money than Idol is willing to pay him. And, according to sources, Enrique Iglesias is still in the running.
And this item claims Randy Jackson will move to a mentoring position, but he’s not happy about it.
“Producers definitely wanted Randy off the judging panel, and proposed to make him a mentor,” a source told The Post’s Page Six. “Not surprisingly, Randy wasn’t too happy about that and tried to negotiate a bigger role.”
There’s still a chance that Jackson — who’s best known for the catchphrase “Yo, dawg!” — could get a reprieve.If the show can’t find another big-name male judge with an R&B background, it may be forced to bring him back, a source said.
