Laying a season’s worth of rumors to rest, Simon Cowell has confirmed that all four judges, including the new and controversial Kara DioGuardi, will return to “American Idol” next season.
“I think certainly next year everyone’s going to be back. … Yeah, absolutely,” he told Ellen DeGeneres during the pre-taped appearance for her talk show.
But that doesn’t mean Cowell is thrilled with the addition of a fourth judge on the original three-judge panel.
“There’s less time for us to talk. One week literally we couldn’t talk, so 10 minutes before the show started they said, ‘Oh by the way you can’t talk for half the show,'” Cowell recalled, according to People. “It’s rather like saying in a singing competition to the singers, half of you can’t sing. It was just crazy.”
Cowell also calls host Ryan Seacrest “pompous” and “obnoxious,” and says of frontrunner Adam Lambert, “He’s got guts.”
Poor fan approval and rumors of a disconnect with the other judges caused bloggers to predict the elimination of DioGuardi early on. But DioGuardi wasn’t the only judge rumored to leave.
Paula Abdul has said that this is her last season under contract and Cowell has dropped hints that it may be time to move on and focus on his other hits, “X Factor” and “Britain’s Got Talent.”
