‘American Idol’ season 13: Is Harry Connick Jr. already thinking of future beyond show?

Typically, you see “American Idol” judges try to figure out if they enjoy the gig on the network before they start making some other plans; however, Harry Connick Jr. may not be the patient type when it comes to this sort of thing.

The newly-minted “American Idol” judge, who has already filmed a few cities in the audition tour, is getting set to try and get into the scripted series business with Fox. According to Deadline, he has a pilot commitment on the network for a show about a professional musician (shocker!) who is trying to form some sort of a closer bond with his teenage daughter. While this pilot in theory just sounds like five other family comedies out there, what gives us hope here is the presence of Eric and Justin Stangel from “The Late Show with David Letterman” as writers for the pilot, and also Letterman’s production house Worldwide Pants helping out behind the scenes. Typically, Letterman gets involved in funny stuff, and doesn’t seem to put out a lot of other projects unless he really feels they are something special.

So could this spell the end for Connick’s time on “American Idol” before it really even begins? Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves here. It is theoretically possible that the schedules could be worked out to do both, especially if this show is set up as a midseason entity that would allow him to do some other things in the fall (like travel for auditions), and then get to work on the series when “American Idol” is more grounded in Los Angeles. Having the two air on the same network in Fox could be a huge help for both shows.

Do you have any optimism that this show could even happen, or that “American Idol” is going to improve its viewership this year? Click here if you do want to read some more news about what is going on at the auditions, and we’ll be back with more scoop soon.

Photo: Fox