‘American Idol’ officially loses Mariah Carey, as if you were shocked in the first place

The following story is likely to not cause anyone’s head to explode from surprise. After a season of being critically-panned for her performance on the “American Idol” judging panel, Mariah Carey has opted to say goodbye rather than try to continue her role for next season. It was a wise move for her to decide to exit gracefully, mostly because we’re not sure that Fox would have asked her back due to an interest in cutting costs.

Carey spun the news of her exit in a positive way today, or at least her PR team did in confirming that she is saying goodbye to the show in order to begin a tour following the success of her new single “Beautiful.” This is something similar to what Jennifer Lopez did last year, as she went all over the world performing music that she helped to popularize while on the show.

In a statement, a rep for Fox and the show had the following to say on Carey’s exit:

“Mariah Carey is a true global icon — one of the most accomplished artists on the planet — and we feel  extremely fortunate that she was able to bring her wisdom and experience to the American Idol contestants this season. We know she will remain an inspiration to Idol hopefuls for many seasons to come.”

We are now officially two judges down, and early reports seemed to suggest that Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban could still follow. We’re personally not ruling out an Urban return, mostly because he wasn’t so much bad as he was just swallowed up in other judges’ personality problems. As for Nicki, we assume that she is gone based on some of the whispers surrounding the show.

Are you surprised that it took this long for the news to come out? If you want to read some more updates from the world of “American Idol,” you don’t have to look any further than the link here.

Photo: Fox