Yes, more news about American Idol! Amidst swirling rumours of who will be on the judging panel for the next season of the show, Paula Abdul’s name has come up. Unfortunately for her she can’t be a judge, reports E! Online.
A source said that Abdul is locked into the upcoming American version of the U.K’s Got to Dance and is contractually prohibited from appearing on any other competition show for quite some time. I guess that’s what you get for signing a seven-figure contract with a huge network (not that she should be complaining).
“If Paula did Idol she would get sued big-time by Viacom,” the source says, continuing that Abdul’s contract with the CBS-produced Got to Dance is for “about five years.”
Producer Nigel Lythgoe is returning to Idol and despite him possibly wanting to bring back an original judge he says, “I love Paula,” but continues, “Paula is under contract to another company so she is unavailable.”
Bad news for anyone hoping to see the crazy outspoken Paula Abdul back on the show!
For the second week in a row, So You Think You Can Dance judges cut someone because of injury, not poor performance. Ashley Galvan was cut from the competition Thursday night because of her cracked rib, reports People.com.
As she was asked to set forward as part of the bottom three contestants for the week, Judge Nigel Lythgoe explained that he had talked with Ashley’s doctors and they had determined she would need at least three weeks off to recover from her injury. She must have seen it coming, but the dancer still broke into tears while thanking her fans.
“I feel like I wasn’t ready to go,” she told People.com. “It sucks.”
Judge Mia Michaels said that Ashley could have gone far in the competition and was a contender to win—not great news for the show. Last week Alex Wong, the clear favourite to win the competition, was cut from the show due to a serious injury to his Achilles tendon.
With top dancers being axed for reasons not relating to their dancing abilities, it’s a real question whether the most talented dancers will be the last ones standing or not.
While executive producer of the hit reality show So You Think You Can Dance, Nigel Lythgoe, has been fluttering around the news that the show’s upcoming season would see big changes for some time now, it is only recently that those changes have been revealed.
Here’s the low-down according to E! Online.com:
Each week, the dance contestants will be partnered with a So You Think You Can Dance All-Star, basically meaning that favourite dancers from past seasons will be back. The All-Stars will be put into a “pool,” as Lythgoe called it, and that is how partners and dance styles will be determined. “Instead of drawing the genre of dance out of a hat, contestants will draw a photograph of one of the All-Stars, and that will dictate the genre that they will be dancing,” Lythgoe told E! Online.
Other changes: instead of a top 20 dancers out of the Las Vegas boot camp week, it will only be a top 10. And each week, it will only be one dancer going home, not two. Each top 10 contestant will get a different All-Star (and therefore different genre of dance) every week. After the performance, the All-Star will exit the stage, leaving just the contestant left to face the judging panel.
“This will be the first time ever, apart from their solos, that they will walk forward alone to be judged,” Lythgoe said.
La Toya Jackson has expressed an interest in replacing Simon Cowell as a judge on American Idol when the Brit steps down at the end of this season, reports TMZ.
Jackson and Nigel Lythgoe, the show’s producer, reportedly discussed the possibility of her making a guest appearance on the show at a recent housewarming party in Bel Air for Kathy Hilton.
Katie Holmes’ performance on So You Think You Can Dance has not received much praise, according to E! Online. The actress performed an homage to Judy Garland choreographed by Tyce Diorio Thursday night on the reality show.
“I am f***ing INSULTED, Katie Holmes how dare you!,” Shanna Moakler wrote on Twitter. “I didn’t just grow up on musicals, I lived and breathed them, Oklahoma, Easter Parade, Family Band, don’t touch my legends! You’re not worthy.”
As E! online so eloquently puts it, “For So You Think You Can Dance judge Nigel Lythgoe, there is no dancing around the issue.”
After defending his allegedly homophobic remarks via Twitter on Friday, Lythgoe has officially issued an apology at the urging of gay rights group GLAAD.
“I sincerely regret the fact that I have upset people with the poor word choices and comments I made both during the taping of theSo You Think You Can Dance audition and on my personal status update,” said Lythgoe. “I am not homophobic and it was extremely upsetting for me to be classed as such.”
An injury has changed the line-up of Top 10 dancers on “So You Think You Can Dance.”
Jessica King has suffered a mysterious injury that is said to need five weeks to heal. She will be replaced by B-girl Comfort Fedoke, who was the last female voted off the show.
In a press release, producer Nigel Lythgoe stated “how sorry I am that Jessica cannot continue dancing in the competition at the advice of her doctor. Her full recovery is paramount and will only come with rest. We are fortunate that Comfort has agreed to rejoin the competition and know that under the circumstances she has Jessica’s full support.” He said he could not reveal the nature of the injury, but that King herself would speak about it on a later episode.
This week, America’s voted will determine who leaves the competition.
