American Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe did something quite uncharacteristic following Thursday’s elimination show: He allowed himself a brief moment to mourn. “I lost my favorite tonight,” he told The Hollywood Reporter minutes after Joshua Ledet was sent home, leaving 16-year-old diva-in-training Jessica Sanchez and 21-year-old aspiring troubadour Phillip Phillips to battle it out at next week's finale.
Ryan Seacrest was there in the beginning, and he's here to stay -- for now.
The multi-tasking TV host and producer said he intends to remain on American Idol, and that an official announcement is forthcoming. His Idol contract is set to expire after the current season.
"I plan to stay there," he told the Today show's Matt Lauer on Wednesday. "I expect to be on that show."
11:04 PM PDT 3/15/2012 by Shirley Halperin, Portia Medina
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"Whhhhaaat?" and "Daaayum!" was how X Factor finalist Chris Rene reacted after seeing Jessica Sanchez and Elise Testone perform on American Idol during Whitney Houston week. Although brand-loyal to the show that launched his career, the 29-year-old Santa Cruz native was so impressed with the girls' singing chops, he's become a vocal fan and insisted THR pass along a video message.
11:40 PM PST 2/28/2012 by Michele Amabile Angermiller
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Tuesday night’s episode of American Idol, which followed what seemed like the longest audition process ever, with endless emergency room visits, flu bouts, and even a peek at Steven Tyler’s derriere, we finally got to hear the first live performances from the top 25.
With Simon Cowell, out of sight certainly does not mean out of mind.
Take, for example, the current brouhaha over who might be the next X Factor judge -- Mariah Carey? Janet Jackson? Katy Perry? Pink? It seems to be all people want to talk about, while the American Idol gang looks, well, idle.
Nigel Lythgoe, executive producer on American Idol, blames the show's ratings downturn in part to competition from NBC's The Voice and fellow Fox series The X Factor.
"With The X Factor sitting there, it feels like two Idol seasons on Fox," Lythgoe said Tuesday in a telephone press conference.
American Idol judge Randy Jackson admits that ratings for the singing competition show aren’t as high as they once were, but he still believe in the show.
"Idol’s in its 11th season, it's still the number one show on television, not by the huge margins it was before," he said.
6:32 AM PST 1/31/2012 by Shirley Halperin, Erin Carlson
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Last year American Idol, shaking things up for its Simon Cowell-less 10th season, recruited Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez to judge alongside series stalwart Randy Jackson.
The show also brought in Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope-Geffen-A&M, to mentor contestants including eventual winner and instant country star, Scotty McCreery.
With American Idol season 11 (!) kicking off tonight, it feels fitting to take a look back at how we got here: to a show anchored by superstar judges and a tireless host, a dream maker and taker and a platform like no other.
Indeed, it’s been a long road that launched with meager beginnings – a makeshift judges’ table and the Texas-sized voice that could: Kelly Clarkson. She set the bar high but plenty have moved it along the way. From the first time a runner-up outsold a winner to the first eye-popping moment when Adam Lambert turned up the heat to 11, Idol has seen many game-changing contestants and performances in its decade on the air. Here, our picks for 10 that stand the test of time:
American Idol host Ryan Seacrest along with the show’s three judges, Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler, executive producer Ken Warwick, Fox Alternative Programming head Mike Darnell and FremantleMedia North America CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz took the stage at the 2012 Television Critics Association to talk about America’s No.
American Idol Season Two runner up Clay Aiken found it easier to face notoriously crabby former Idol judge Simon Cowell than Donald Trump, whom he takes on in the new season of NBC's Celebrity Apprentice.
4:04 PM PDT 11/3/2011 by Shirley Halperin, Fred Bronson
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Among the 12 million viewers who are watching The X Factor every week is a select group of people who know better than anyone what the contestants on the freshman series are experiencing: the American Idol alumni, who have gone through a very similar experience themselves. (According to an insider, a few Idol grads even tried out for X Factor this year, among them: season 6's Lakisha Jones and Haley Scarnato and season 7's David Hernandez.)
Though Simon Cowell and American Idol co-creator Simon Fuller have been in a very public feud for years and most recently over the U.S. broadcast of The X Factor,Idol executive producer Nigel Lythgoe has managed to steer clear of the drama for the most part.
