With the new season starting filming today, Fox Fox has finally announced the new line-up for the 13th season of American Idol. Jennifer Lopez will return as a judge along with Harry Connick, Jr. Keith Urban is the only returning judge from last season and Randy Jackson will still be hanging around but this year as a mentor.  Connick and Lopez are a departure from (what felt like) last season’s stunt casting of Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey. The pair inspired plenty of heated debate among fans but ultimately, their fighting took a lot of the spotlight away from the singers.  Their pay also cost Fox a fortune. We estimated that between Minaj, Carey, Jackson, Urban and host Ryan Seacrest, Fox was shelling out $54 million just in salaries last season.  Lopez will likely still demand a high paycheck. She was earning an estimated $15 million when she left the show. Her time on American Idol helped turn around her flagging career and landed Lopez in the No. 1 spot on our Celebrity 100 list in 2012. She’ll be able to use the platform again to promote her music and maybe even kick off a world tour (which is where musicians really make the big money).  Connick and Urban are likely earning a lot less though. Connick has been on Idol before as a mentor but the singer was likely happy to appear as a judge for far less than $15 million because of the massive exposure it will give him.  The salary that Fox shells out for its judges isn’t really the important metric for the show though. More important is how the new line-up effects ratings. While still one of the highest-rated show on television, viewers have been deserting Idol for shiny new talent shows like The Voice. According to Horizon Media, ratings at American Idol peaked in 2006 with season five which attracted an average 29.5 million viewers per show. Taylor Hicks won that season but it also launched stars like Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler and Katherine McPhee.  Since then, the ratings have been on a steady downward slope. This past season only attracted an average 13 million viewers per show. That’s still a huge audience but by American Idol standards, it’s a big drop.  The new panel of judges now features all singers which puts it more in line with The Voice. But American Idol might need more than just new faces in the judges chairs to turn things around. There haven’t been many contestants to get very excited about in the past few years. The mandate of the show is supposed to be to crown a new pop idol but winners rarely go on to superstar careers at this point.  It may be that after 12 years, there’s not much that can be done to restore American Idol to its former glory and that’s O.K. For any show to run 13 years is impressive and because its a reality show even with the cost of the fancy judges, American Idol is still relatively cheap to produce. It doesn’t lend itself to reruns but for now, it still brings in plenty of money from advertisers.  Follow me on Twitter at DorothyatForbes.
The latest judges line-up might not restore 'American Idol' to its former ratings glory but that might be OK.