‘American Idol’ season 13: Keith Urban to officially return as judge; Jennifer Lopez in talks
The following news does officially nix the talk of “American Idol” having an all-alumni panel for its upcoming 13th season, and we’re sure the reaction is going to be therefore pretty divided among fans that Keith Urban is coming back. This was confirmed today by Fox programming head Kevin Reilly at TCA, with him saying that the “fans really liked him,” and that he is a “funny guy” worthy of another season on the show.
For Fox, we understand the decision on a certain level. Keith is at least popular in the country community, and he also will not command an exorbitant amount of money compared to the Mariah Carey’s of the world. We do also think that he got a bad wrap last year, since even Mick Jagger wouldn’t have been able to be that entertaining sitting next to the mess of Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson, and Nicki Minaj. Keith just looked like he wanted to go into the corner and cry himself to sleep most of the time.
What will make you more likely to throw up in your mouth a little bit is the news that Jennifer Lopez, who is very expensive and not a particularly great judge, will also be back for another season. Who knows? Maybe she’s learned from the criticism the past two years, and will try to improve; we do think, though, that younger audiences who don’t like negative feedback probably do like her, and this is why she is being considered more so than some tougher judges after last year. (She also does ramble less than Carey, so there’s that.) Who knows? Maybe J.Lo will pick up her game not sitting next to the vacuum that is Steven Tyler, though we would have rather seen Jennifer Hudson since it also would have caused the show to save a little coin.
There is still no word on the third judge, but Will.i.am (who we like and everyone else hates as an option) seems to be the leading candidate based on rumors. We’d still prefer to see Adam Lambert or Pharrell Williams over him, but if you are going to have three judges, we’d much prefer Will to either Mariah or the Aerosmith frontman. So basically, it’s okay, but it’s not going to get anyone that excited.
If you want to read some more news about who is campaigning for Adam to sign on, just be sure to visit the story over at the link here.
Photo: Fox