‘American Idol’: Nicki Minaj leaving after season 12, claims source

While Fox may have not announced any sweeping changes to their “American Idol” judging panel during their recent upfront presentation, it was still pretty clear that the writing was on the wall with its disastrous judging panel. Despite being the most-opinionated judge in the history of the Fox series by a long mile, Nicki Minaj is indeed going to be leaving the show. It’s possible that the decision was mutual, given that she is busy recording, and the network needs to go in another direction, anyway, to boost ratings that fell off of a cliff during most of this season.

Here is what an “insider,” supposedly close to the rapper, had to say on the matter to Us Weekly:

“It’s safe to say she isn’t coming back to Idol … She’s okay with it. She had a great time but was only going to do one season anyway.”

We have held the title of one of Nicki’s champions for most of the past year, and we’ll stand by the claims that she legitimately pushed the contestants to be better much more so than anyone else has. Sometimes, you need tough love rather than constant over-praising, and she was always completely real from that aspect. (Kicking Lazaro Arbos, Devin Velez, and Burnell Taylor off the stage is still a personal highlight.)

The biggest problem with Nicki is just that her personality is too polarizing, not only for viewers, but for the entire judging panel. She and Mariah Carey’s failures to get along are in many ways the biggest reason why there was no chemistry on the panel, and why we often find ourselves hitting the mute button during most of the critiques. It just goes to show that relying solely on superstars to be successful judges and ratings draws is a very bad idea, especially two people in Minaj and Carey whose success is in part attributed to their ability to be controversial.

In turning the focus back to the contestants (at least for a second), you can check out what Kree Harrison and Candice Glover’s post-show plans are at the moment by paying a visit over to the link here.

Photo: Fox