"American Idol" returns for its eighth season on Tuesday with a new judge.Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson sometimes have had guest celebrities sitting next to them, but they have finally decided to get a permanent addition to their team: Kara DioGuardi, a Grammy-nominated songwriter and record producer from New York turns the trio into a quartet.
Former Congressman Joseph DioGuardi’s 38-year-old daughter grew up in New Rochelle and has a political science degree from Duke University.
She has written songs for Enrique Iglesias, Pink, Celine Dion, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani and former "Idol" contestants Kelly Clarkson, David Archuleta, David Cook and Katharine McPhee, Bo Bice and Taylor Hicks. In addition to all that, she has also worked with Faith Hill, Ashlee Simpson and the Pussycat Dolls.
DioGuardi had a brief warm-up for “Idol” when she was a judge on ABC’s “The One: Making a Music Star,” a show that was canceled after only four episodes in 2006. When asked how she felt about joining the “American Idol” team, she seemed to be certain of the fact that she will provide the show professional expertise together with the cumulated experiences of singer-choreographer Abdul, music producer-executive Cowell and producer-manager-musician Jackson.
The five-month search for a new star kicks off with a two-night, four-hour premiere featuring the familiar blend of hundreds of hopeful contestants auditioning in cities across the nation. The program and its singers are followed around the world, either live or in taped broadcasts, in 100 countries. Executive producer Ken Warwick stated that the changes of the show had been made in order to "to make it more interesting."
Since it began in 2002 on the Fox network, "American Idol" has produced stars like Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood through a viewer-driven voting format that has been adopted by many other TV shows.
At this point, it is impossible to be sure about how things will turn out, but the hanging question mark gives the season some unexpected excitement before it begins. DioGuardi already said that male contestants had the edge over the women this season, judging by early auditions.
Other changes that the audience is up for include the reintroduction of a wild-card round, two full weeks of the high-tension super-drama of Hollywood Week and increased use of backstage footage, documenting the off-screen lives of the contestants.
The return of "American Idol" takes place two months after the suicide in November of a former contestant and obsessed fan who took an overdose in her car outside Paula Abdul's home in Los Angeles. The woman, Paula Goodspeed, was ridiculed by the judges in her 2005 audition, which made the acid judge Cowell to reconsider his way of criticizing the contestants. Last month he said that Goodspeed's suicide hit the show "like an express train" and forced him to reflect on his harsh comments to bad singers.
