Mariah Carey The Next American Idol Judge

It’s official!! The five-time Grammy winner Mariah Carey will have a seat as the next American Idol Season 12 judge. At the Summer TV Press Tour just this Monday July 23, 2012, Fox Programming Chief Executive Kevin Reilly dialed Carey and put her on speaker phone to announce she’s on board “Idol”. “I am so excited to be joining “Idol”, she told the press.

Fox is so desperate then to bounce back as AI is slipping down with its viewership. It seems like the judging panel for American Idol has been jinxed. Only Randy Jackson had a tight grip in AI judging history. Let’s take a tour on American Idol judging panel timeline.

June 11, 2002: American Idol on Fox debuts with judges record producer and ex-Journey member Randy Jackson, British music industry executive Simon Cowell and singer-songwriter and TV personality Paula Abdul. AI garnered 10 million people on its first week and rose to 23 million during its Season Finale with Kelly Clarkson winning as the first American Idol.

October 2003: AI bosses hire New York DJ/hip-hop artist Angie Martinez as the fourth judge but quits after few days of audition.

August 26, 2008: AI went back to its original three-judge format. The show even reached with average viewers of 31 million in 2006. But in Season 8, the ratings slipped to an average of 28 million. Idol bosses then pulled in pop songwriter and producer Kara DioGuardi to join the judges.

August 4, 2009: Paula might be upset of having Kara on the panel. A day after Kara inked for another Idol season with Fox, Paula tweeted that she won’t be coming back for Season 9.

September 9, 2009: Fox found an unlikely replacement for Paula. Talk show host Ellen DeGeneres joins the other three judges.

January 11, 2010: Simon Cowell announced that this will be his final year in American Idol. With Simon leaving and Ellen on board, the ratings didn’t improve with just average viewers of 24 million.

July 29, 2010: Ellen decides then to leave the show as she humbly says that she’s not fit for the show. And oh, it’s worth mentioning that Randy Jackson still have his seat buckled up.

September 23, 2010: Guess what’s next! Kara left “Idol” for good. Fox then tapped in Aerosmith rocker Steven Tyler and pop star Jennifer Lopez as the judges panel goes on a revamp except, of course, Randy. Good news! The ratings seem to bounce back a bit now averaging 25 million viewers.

January 2012: Ooopss!! The ratings suddenly tumble down with a very low audience in Idol history of an average of 19 million for the season.

July 2012: Rumors are then confirmed that JLo and Tyler are leaving the show. It was Tyler at first and then followed by JLo. There are also rumors going around that Tyler was indeed sacked by AI bosses and JLo demanded for a higher fee but AI didn’t bother to present their counter offer.

July 23, 2012: And here goes Mariah Carey adding up to the list. I hope she’ll make her stay longer compared to Lopez. Or should I say, hope she remains when Jackson decided to leave? Oh well, Jackson nailed his seat and Tyler’s replacement is yet to be announced. Stay tuned!