14 DAY TRIAL // American Idol is in trouble again as one of the rumored replacement judges, Jennifer Lopez, has already been dropped from the new lineup because she was too big a diva.
As we also reported a while back, just as the new season is about to start, AI has been left with just one judge from the original lineup: Simon Cowell’s time is over, Ellen DeGeneres quit and Kara DioGuardi has been fired.
Rumor had it producers wanted to go back to the 3-judge format, bringing in Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez to sit next to Randy Jackson. But that too is out of the question now, People magazine says.
With just one month to go, JLo had to be dropped as a potential judge because producers were not able to finalize the deal with her, one insider dishes.
It’s not that the singer had a change of heart or anything about accepting the job, but rather that producers suddenly realized she wasn’t a good pick when she started to make almost impossible demands.
Lopez, who has somewhat of a reputation for being an outrageous diva, reportedly started reaching too far in her negotiations with the producers and the network – and was eventually sent home.
“Her demands got out of hand,” says the source for People. “Fox had just had enough.”
‘But now that Lopez is out of the running, the network may be looking at their earlier top picks again,” People adds. As is usually the case with such situations, neither Fox nor a spokesperson for Lopez was immediately available for comments.
With Jackson being the only judge left, not few have been those saying that American Idol is literally breathing its last breath as we speak, since part of its appeal with audiences was the wonderful chemistry between the judges.
Even if replacements are found in due time (and they probably will), this also means that Fox has to go the extra mile to make sure the chemistry between them is the right type, kind of like Cowell had with ex-judge Paula Abdul, ideally speaking.
Make sure you keep an eye on this space for more on this.
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