American Idol struggling to find judges alongside Katy Perry: Report
According to TMZ, the ABC iteration of the long-running hit reality franchise is struggling to find ways to fill the vacancies on the panel. They have not decided whether or not to have two or three additional judges alongside hitmaker Katy Perry, but one thing does feel clear: They’re going to need to be fairly diplomatic about some of the decisions that they make. ABC is paying Perry an incredible $25 million to be a judge on the show. We do get the thinking, given that she is the most-followed person on Twitter and they understand that her presence almost certainly means exposure for the show. However, it’s a bit of misnomer to think that Twitter followers (or tweets in general) necessarily correlate to huge ratings — the Teen Choice Awards routinely get a ton of social-media traffic only to consistently draw lower ratings than most other network awards shows out there.
Perry’s real value, at least from our vantage point, comes in her candor. She will speak her mind about the various talent that enters the room, and she’ll produce entertaining moments at the same time. She can be caring, but she can also be blunt. Too many judges on this show end up just wearing kid gloves and it never leads to the contestants getting better. You need that sort of brutal honesty sometimes to actually make people better.
As for who some of the other contenders are for the roles, we’ve heard Lionel Richie’s name frequently but apparently money is an issue. Richie is apparently demanding around $10 million and the show hasn’t been willing to bite on that. Meanwhile, you’ve also got supposedly former judge Keith Urban, up-and-comer Charlie Puth, and country star Luke Bryan in the running. Producer / performer Nile Rodgers is another interesting possibility, and he is actually someone we’d sign off on given that he’s performed with so many people over the years and understands what it means to work in all aspects of the industry. There are probably plenty of other people the show could reach out to in the event that they really need to.
One of the biggest things that American Idol needs to closely examine at the moment is balance. They think that they need star power to sell the show, but they already have that now. There’s a major part of us that just wants them to focus on finding great talent + chemistry with the judges and ignore whether or not someone is a big name. Entertainment and memorable moments will sell the show, given that it did the first time so many years ago.
What do you think the priority should be with the American Idol judging panel search? Be sure to share below!
Meanwhile, head over to the link here in the event that you do want to get some additional news when it comes to the series right now. (Photo: Fox.)