First episode of new season brings tears, happiness and some drama for good measure

Jan 18, 2013 12:33 GMT  ·  By

It wasn’t all just tears of joy on last night’s American Idol, the first episode of the new season: at one point during the Chicago auditions, the claws came out for Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj.

Check out the video above to see the two divas go for each other while judging Stephanie Schimel’s performance: Nicki joked that she turned her down because they had the same eye shadow, and Mariah took it seriously and responded.

“You see what I have to put up with at my job,” Mariah told Stephenie, whom she’d greenlighted for the next stage just moments before.

However, things went back to normal afterwards.

The second video embedded here is of yet another emotional moment: Mariah Pulice is an anorexic who’s struggling to stay healthy, and who managed to move both Mariah and Nicki to tears with her story.