‘American Idol’ season 12: Australia hypes up Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj ‘feud’

Thus far, Fox has chosen to keep the focus of “American Idol” season 12 on relatively positive things, whether that means the singers or the judges all smiling and getting along. However, we can now confirm that the folks working at Australian network Ten are taking a very different approach to hyping up the latest season of the show.

As you can see in the promo below,the network has chosen to heavily hype up the supposed “feud” that exists between judges Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj, as it shows them disagreeing about some contestants and passing a few snide glances off at each other. However, the infamous shouting match that leaked to TMZ earlier this year is (thankfully) not included in the mix.

So what is the benefit of this strategy? Obviously, this Australian network seems to believe that it is the right move for them to try and promote the show by getting new viewers to watch for the sake of the drama. To an extent it could work, but you also are simultaneously running the risk of alienating people who want to see a true singing competition. For us, one of the joys about “American Idol” is that it never really got too ugly with the judges, and we were pretty disappointed that the fight ever happened to begin with. There is no indication just yet that executive producer Nigel Lythgoe is going to even include it in an episode, but we should know at some point next month when the show returns.

What do you think about this promo, and do you think putting the focus on Mariah and Nicki is a good or terrible idea? Be sure to share some of your thoughts below, and if you want to watch yet another “American Idol” season 12 promo, you can do so over here.

Photo: Fox