'American Idol's' Jennifer Lopez Expected to Close Deal This Week

2:58 PM PDT 7/27/2011 by Shirley Halperin, Lesley Goldberg

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Sources tell THR that the judge is close to signing a deal to see the singer-actress return to the Fox hit.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Jennifer Lopez

Jennifer Lopez is expected to sign a deal this week to return to the judges’ table on Fox’s American Idol, a high-ranking source close to the reality hit told The Hollywood Reporter.

TheWall Street Journal reported Sunday that the Idol judge was closing in on a deal to return for one more season, citing sources.

STORY: ‘American Idol’ Judge Jennifer Lopez Nears Deal for Another Season (Report)

“We’re in good shape. No worries. No dark clouds on the horizon,” Cécile Frot-Coutaz, CEO at FremantleMedia North America, which produces the Fox singing competition told the WSJ.

Lopez has been in negotiations for months, during which time she has stated that she wasn’t sure whether she would return to the No. 1 show on television.

THR has reported that Lopez took home a paycheck of $12 million for her work on Season 10 of Idol, significantly less than the $35 million annual salary Simon Cowell earns. Idol experts have suggested that Lopez could be holding out for a salary hike that would bring her earnings more in line with Cowell’s.

Lopez joined the judges panel last season that saw Cowell, Ellen DeGeneres and Kara Dioguardi exit and Lopez and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler join mainstay Randy Jackson.

Tyler has a multiyear deal and is already locked up for Season 11. Jackson also is on board for the next installment, which bows in January.

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